No comments about E. W. Scripps and the Business of Newspapers (History of Communication).

No comments about Francis Blake: An Inventor's Life 1850-1913 (Historical Society).

5 comments about Business the Richard Branson Way: 10 Secrets of the World's Greatest Brand-Builder.

1. I suggested that we choose Virgin as a company to research as an MBA Project. Our group used this book as research material. We found it wonderful, and uplifting, exactly what what was necessary for this project. I would highly recommend it to others as well as the book "Losing My Virginity". Virgin is a company that should be studied by US business'executives, its shows you can create an empire - differently!



2. I believe that Richard Branson is a unique character and that information about his life and business philosophies would make an interesting read. Thus I chose to read this book.

   However I was somewhat disappointed. Although I did learn a few things and there were some interesting passages, a great deal of the book consisted of quotes obtained from OTHER biographers and journalists attempting to document Branson's life.

   Each chapter concluded with a summary (read: repetition) of the information in that chapter, and dozens of other sections/quotes/anecdotes were obviously repeated in various chapters. Perhaps because of this, it only took me an hour to read the entire book (admittedly I am a reasonably fast reader).

   One thing that I can say in its favor is that the book was structured well; there were 10 main sections, each devoted to a different "Branson philosophy" (for example, "pick on someone bigger than you").

   In short, although I did get some interest out of this book I am looking for another Branson biography to read because this one fell short of expectations.




3. This book is a handy compilation of observations, hypotheses and speculations on the subject of Richard Branson. Author Des Dearlove freely and frankly admits his debt to several other writers who have probed the Branson story in depth and breadth. There is little if anything original to be found, aside perhaps from the author's style of presentation, which tries hard to be light and deft. Although the book carries you along, its biggest punch resides in the author's list of "10 secrets" of Branson's success. Readers who would like to know in the most general terms what Branson has done and how he has done it, and who are willing to swallow a few clichés in lieu of explanations, will seize upon this book.we think you will enjoy it and, after all, enjoying your work is one of Branson's great secrets.



4. And that's pretty much all this book does. And truly I'd be okay with that if it were at all well written or offered ANY real insight into his method. Y'know how reality shows always spend like one-third of their air time repeating stuff they already told you? This book is like that.
   
   The King of Virgin is clearly a marketing genius. Surely there's another book that does him justice.



5. Des has done a good job into explaining how Richard Branson does business.
   A fun read full of practical ideas!

No comments about Helena Rubinstein.

3 comments about The Wal-Mart Triumph: Inside the World's #1 Company.

1. Very interesting book! I also liked the book, which is similar to this, "The Wal-Mart Way" which describes the man who had a clear purpose and vision and his greatness of achieving success in forming the World's #1 company.



2. Wal-Mart has become a controversial company because it has grown immensely powerful - by revenue the biggest company in the world and the largest private employer. From its origins as a southern mid-western company going for neglected rural markets, its story is one of remarkable success.
   
   This book offers a succinct history and some explanation of how Wal-Mart succeeded: it went to markets that its big competitors ignored, made everyday low prices an essential part of its brand image, cultivated a conscientious service mentality in workers, and pursued efficiency through both scale and operations. That is its business model in a nutshell. Slater presents this matter of factly, as a natural evolution that carried the seeds of genius in the personality of earthy founder Sam Walton. The bulk of the story is how Walton's successors expanded the company far beyond what the founder achieved, making it truly global and putting a bureaucratic system into place. This was a bit useful for me as I start to investigate the company for a writing project.
   
   Unfortunately, this book felt to me like Slater was happy to propogate the myth that Wal-Mart wishes observers to believe about the company. He recounts how employees are taught to cheerlead, and acts like they want to, like they feel it sincerely rather than do it because they have to! I can say that I found it hard to believe: big companies are rarely happy and enthusiastic places. Is that conclusion surprising to anyone? It would be for Slater, who himself is a cheerleader.
   
   Even worse, he only perfunctorily asks himself any of the hard questions - such as the company's treatment of labor, its transforming impact on local communities, its use of sweatshops, etc. etc. - and then quickly implies that they are largely superfluous or silly exaggerations. This is nothing short of a simple white wash, and reads like PR that is trying to pose as thoughtful. This is really mediocre and shallow, almost like a company brochure. Slater failed to get inside the company, though he did do some interviews with prepped top officials, or so it appeared to me.
   
   Oddly, as a relatively conservative business writer, I would give Wal-Mart the benefit of the doubt, pending my own investigation as a reporter. But Slater seems to be openly endorsing the company as if it lived up to its own PR. It is appalling to me, and I am no leftie or automatic critic of big companies, but I am a skeptic as a reporter.
   
   Indeed, where he did address issues, they were never detailed enough, but instead were the most simplistic and narrow-minded generalizations. For example, he writes: "A new attitude was beginning to surface...Rather than show disdain for the negativism, the feeling was growing that there was virtue in having the media and community activists monitoring Wal-Mart." That pap is emblematic of the tone of this book and perfectly reflects how superficial it is. It also flatly contradicts what I have heard through the corporate grapevine with only the most simple of inquiries among my contacts.
   
   Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book. Reading it is like getting a huge vanilla milkshake for dinner rather than a steak. I will have to look elsewhere for more balanced treatments of the many thorny issues that this huge company has helped to create.



3. Okay so here goes.
   Hey i just finished reading this book and it was amazing!
   "The Wal-Mart Triumph" by Robert Slater was an amazing book. It's so soaked with facts on how and why Wal-Mart is the way it is if it had anymore facts the book would drown in a puddle of facts. The first chapter is basically about how Wal-Mart started and how Sam Walton started his business empire. Then it goes on to tell about how Walmart got it's roots implanted into the south and then took over certain chain stores in the south and so on and so forth unti they get to today and it talks about the lawsuits and so on and so forth.
   Great book good read.

No comments about Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships.

No comments about CERNER: From Vision to Value.

1 comments about Now Hear This: The Life of Hugh S. Knowles, Acoustical Engineer and Enterpreneur.

1. This excellent publication chronicles the life of Hugh S. Knowles (LF). From his meager and violent beginnings as a youth living in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution to his death in 1988.

   Born in Iowa in 1904, Knowles spent most of his youth in Mexico in the midst of the Revolution. Even during his youth he exhibited great abilities, which led to his graduation from high school at the age of fourteen. His stint in the Merchant marines was a maturing experience, and the beginning of his career as an engineer. His college years almost proved to be too much, as he was talking a full course load each semester while holding done two jobs. His marriage to Josephine proved to be his true soul mate and a remarkable woman herself. She toiled endlessly throughout her entire life to support the family and his companies. Her untimely death at an early age left Hugh and his children devastated.

   As Hugh traveled through life, he had a sincere interest in not only technology, but also the people he dealt with. He was a perfectionist, who always insisted on overseeing the development of produced by Knowles Electronics. He had a personable side to him, as was well respected by not only his peers, but other individuals that he encountered in life. His final years with wife Nancy were reflective.

   The book nicely mixes personal/family history with technology, explaining Hugh's invention in a manner understandable to the non-engineer. Susan Goodwillie gives us in-site into Hugh's fascination with the invention of the transistor and his understanding of its importance and future applications.

No comments about The Vineyard: A Memoir.

5 comments about Otto Kahn: Art, Money, and Modern Time.

1. In the early decades of the twentieth century, almost everyone in modern theater, literature, or film knew of Otto Kahn (1867-1934), and those who read the financial press or followed the news from Wall Street could scarcely have missed his name. A partner at one of America's premier private banks, he played a leading role in reorganizing the U.S. railroad system and supporting the Allied war effort in World War I. The German-Jewish Kahn was also perhaps the most influential patron of the arts the nation has ever seen: he helped finance the Metropolitan Opera, brought the Ballets Russes to America, and bankrolled such promising young talent as poet Hart Crane, the Provincetown Players, and the editors of the Little Review.

   This book is the full-scale biography Kahn has long deserved. Theresa Collins chronicles Kahn's life and times and reveals his singular place at the intersection of capitalism and modernity. Drawing on research in private correspondence, congressional testimony, and other sources, she paints a fascinating portrait of the figure whose seemingly incongruous identities as benefactor and banker inspired the New York Times to dub him the "Man of Steel and Velvet."

   "This rich and fascinating biography tells the remarkable story of a remarkable man who, combining the power of an international financier with the finesse of a patron of the arts, helped make New York City a world cultural capital."--Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

   "Theresa Collins's Otto Kahn is a superb piece of biography and a major work of historical reclamation. This is history written in the grand manner--sweeping in scope, majestic in style. And it restores to us in all his grandeur and cultural consequence a remarkable figure from our past."--Martin Duberman, City University of New York

   "This first full-length biography of Otto Kahn offers a compelling portrait of a major figure in the history of American finance and culture. The keen eye and vivid prose of Theresa Collins illuminate the many facets of this fascinating character and his world."--Maury Klein, University of Rhode Island




2. "A considered and nuanced account of [the] early twentieth century American Medici. . . . Collins' accomplished biographical study profiles from the cinematic deftness with which she crosscuts facets of Kahn's life, an altogether appropriate technique in limning an existence so enamored of and beholden to modernity. Her use of the language of theater and film in interpretive contexts seamlessly brings his many worlds into a unified vision."--Aufbau



3. "Collins shows how [Kahn] gave away money nearly as quickly as he earned it, his contributions to music, literature, theater, dance, painting and design establishing New York City as an international cultural mecca. . . . Essential details are expertly negotiated, and thornier questions on the reality of latent anti-Semitism among the heirs of the Gilded Age are explored in depth. . . . As Collins aptly demonstrates, this 'self-made aristocrat' mastered the East without losing his soul, and in the process, he ennobled the arts he loved."--Opera News



4. In his day, J.P. Morgan was the best-known head of an American financial house. But Otto Kahn was a close second. Today, Morgan enjoys immortality in the popular imagination, while Kahn is all but forgotten. Thankfully Theresa Collins ... has produced a biography of Kahn that illuminates his importance as a man who successfully combined modern business sensibilities with art patronage. (Review by Ian Drake, Philanthropy Magazine, May/June 2003)



5. "a genuinely transnational biography and a model for those who wish to engage in that rapidly growing field of historical scholarship."(Michael Kammen, Cornell University)