Book Description
Principles of Corporate Finance is the worldwide leading text that describes the theory and practice of corporate finance. Throughout the book the authors show how managers use financial theory to solve practical problems and as a way of learning how to respond to change by showing not just how but why companies and management act as they do. The text is comprehensive, authoritative, and modern and yet the material is presented at a common sense level. The discussions and illustrations are unique due to the depth of detail blended with a distinct sense of humor for which the book is well known and highly regarded. This text is a valued reference for thousands of practicing financial managers. Richard A. Brealey and Stewart C. Myers welcome Franklin Allen as a new coauthor to this Eighth Edition. Sometimes the addition of a new coauthor means that one of the existing authors proposes to take a back seat. That is not the case with this team. Dr. Allen’s addition represents a genuine increase in capacity and brings fresh expertise and ideas to an already tremendously successful textbook and partnership.
Customer Reviews:
Just perfect........2007-09-06
Although I did not pass the exam that I took. The problem was with the exam not the book. This is an excellent book with lot of work done to ensure that the book is perfect.
The presentations available online with this book have a few mistakes.
Not great for the beginner.......2007-07-17
This book is not very clear in its explanations and does not have too many worked examples. Not sure why my MBA school prescribes this. I recommend reading Fundamentals of Corporate Finance Standard Edition by Stephen Ross, Randolph Westerfield.
Lacking Full Explanations.......2007-06-07
This book leaves me with more questions about finance than I have answers. Who do the authors think they are writing for? It surely is not the beginner MBA student. It seems like words are expensive because they do not fully or even partially explain concepts. Finance is difficult but it should not be impossible. I should not have to read and reread to figure out what the heck they are talking about. Maybe they should serve as advisors to this text and let someone who knows how to write actually write the book. These guys may be leaders and brillant but they are poor communicators. I'm not thrilled with my professor either. Is he a cheerleader or a teacher?
Good introductory finance book.......2007-04-11
This is an easy to ready comprehensive introduction to basic finance concepts. I would not recommend it to finance majors but I consider it a good choice for general MBA or other students that do not have a stong quantitative finance background.
Comprehensive text - you get your money's worth.......2007-01-09
I got this book for my Intro to Corp Finance class. The professor was aweful, but the book got me through the class. There are several other finance classes that use the same text, so for once I feel like I'll get my money's worth out of a textbook.
Book Description
Corporate Finance is today’s most authoritative book on— and covers every angle of—corporate finance. Updates to this edition include a more user-friendly approach, new or updated cases that illustrate top companies addressing real world situations, topical articles written by scholars and practitioners, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Corporate Finance lack luster.......2007-10-22
This book was last updated in 1988. The material is not current and the examples are not clear. It would help to have the formulas in the back of the book on the questions they have provided answers too.
When buying a book for this price, I would expect a more detail.
Corporate Finance.......2007-05-25
This is an excellent value for the price that I paid and the quick delivery in which the book was delivered!! This seller was very courteous and responsive to my questions!! A+++ seller for and A+++ product!!
UoP Must!.......2007-01-03
Addendums are an important reference item. The entire text was thought provoking and challenging. I'm glad that I chose to "bite the bullet" and spend the 'extra' money on the text which is not the case with all UoP courses. This time it paid off.
Corporate Finance-Stephen A. Ross.......2006-11-10
Well organized and adequately comprehensive. Could use more material in certain areas, but that's a personal perspective. Overall, good book.
Neutral.......2006-11-10
Kinda hard to understand and the information provided in the text is not presented very clearly. Maybe it is just me and I did not finish the whole book anyway. I actually haven't read any of it since chapter 2... since now I rely on mostly the professor's notes which I find easier to understand than the textbook.
Book Description
It's an axiom of business that great companies grow their revenues and profits year after year. Yet quietly, under the radar, a small number of companies have rejected the pressure of endless growth to focus on more satisfying business goals. Goals like being great at what they do . . . creating a great place to work . . . providing great customer service . . . making great contributions to their communities . . . and finding great ways to lead their lives.
In Small Giants, veteran journalist Bo Burlingham takes us deep inside fourteen remarkable companies that have chosen to march to their own drummer. They include Anchor Brewing, the original microbrewer; CitiStorage Inc., the premier independent records-storage business; Clif Bar & Co., maker of organic energy bars and other nutrition foods; Righteous Babe Records, the record company founded by singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco; Union Square Hospitality Group, the company of restaurateur Danny Meyer; and Zingerman's Community of Businesses, including the world-famous Zingerman's Deli of Ann Arbor.
Burlingham shows how the leaders of these small giants recognized the full range of choices they had about the type of company they could create. And he shows how we can all benefit by questioning the usual definitions of business success. In his new afterward, Burlingham reflects on the similarities and learning lessons from the small giants he covers in the book.
Small Giants
is a finalist for the Financial Times
/ Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award
Customer Reviews:
Inspirational...a GREAT read........2007-10-10
Bo Burlingham has his hand on the pulse of what makes companies great. His writing is terrific, his story telling superb, the book an inspiration for anyone who is a business owner...a great "sherpa" for any large organization.
Small Giants.......2007-09-21
I highly recommend this book to the business owner that wants a vision for his company. It doesn't have to be all about profits. They will come when you take care and build a relationship with your employees, customers, suppliers, and your community.
Decent Examination of the Small-Scale, but Lacks Figures & Facts.......2007-09-09
After reading Jim Collin's seminal work Good to Great, I became enamored with the idea of "scope" as it pertains to business success. I recalled hearing about Gore, the company, and how they do not allow any one of their offices to grow beyond 250 people - setting 250 as the magic number, above which intimacy, norms of reciprocity and mutual assistance are not possible. I started to crave a book that might address those very ideas from a Collins-esque standpoint. After some search, I found a book that Jim Collins had reviewed: "This well-written book should inspire thousands of entrepreneurs to reject a mantra of growth for growth's sake in favor of a passionate dedication to becoming the absolute best. Bo Burlingham reminds us of a vital truth: big does not equal great, and great does not equal big."
That was enough of an endorsement for me, and I dove right into reading. I came away somewhat disappointed by the less-than-rigorous methodology, but also energized by the ideas presented. Burlingham does not use the same exactitude in selecting the companies he features (largely because the financial reports are not public for the private groups he chose to focus on). Thus, it is difficult to appreciate his findings in the same way as I can appreciate Collins'.
However, Burlingham writes like the capable and clever journalist that he is (editor at Inc. magazine) and the pages turn easily. His chapters are divided as logically as possible, given the lack of concrete data. Much of what he presents is based off feeling, interviews, observation, and contemplative conclusions. He does not hesitate to label the success of these businesses as "mysterious" - following from "mojo" or (my preference) "spiritual terroir."
Read this book if you want to read some incredibly articulate leaders talking about their perspective on business. It is one of the best compilations of leader interviews I have read. The book groups the commentary together when appropriate, or allows one leader to dictate the chapter content entirely. Either way, Burlingham does a marvelous job of letting these men and women speak for themselves and their hard-won success. It is refreshing. The owner and CEO of Anchor Brewing, Fritz Maytag, is downright moving in his eloquence. Jay Goltz, head of Artists' Frame Service is brazenly pragmatic, but uses stories to speak to the underlying support of this leadership approach (managing is "also about learning how not to demotivate [your people]").
Do not read this book if you are looking for applicable solutions or step-by-step recommendations.
breath of fresh air.......2007-07-02
An intelligent analysis of successful small businesses. Comprehensive stories of small business done right. Inspires you to start your own company!
Great Thought-Provoking Book.......2007-06-27
I work for a small company that wants to be great. After reading the book I feel good about what we are doing and challenged to do better in some areas. If you are looking for a "how to be great" book, this is probably not the book for you. If you looking for a book to provoke some deep thought about the relationship between size and greatness, then I highly recommend this book.
Product Description
What has happened to Andy Grove's Intel? A Wall Street Journal article dated November 1, 2006 stated that Andy Grove "won't talk about current goings on at Intel. He does, though, talk about its past and wistfully. He helped make Intel one of the world's greatest brands; for most men, that would be the prelude to a retirement full of self-satisfaction. Instead, there is much regret that Andy Grove's Intel wasn't able to use its brand name for even one other great thing besides microprocessors." The cult of Andy Grove consisted of a core set of values expressed as certain behaviors that Grove himself forced on employees long before the Intel values were formally published and put on employee badges. What many outsiders don t know is that management s actions within Intel's corporate culture were inconsistent with the published values. After Grove's departure, this gap between management behaviors and the published values was amplified, establishing the impetus for the decline of Intel's performance-based corporate culture. In light of Intel spending over $10 billion on 35 acquisitions, its diversification strategy lacked an overall execution plan for tying it all together and making it work within their existing business and economic models. Intel s lackluster stock market performance over the past six years has not prevented many investors from hoping that the stock will once again repeat its past stellar performance. The world has changed and the business model that made Intel the behemoth that it is today may have lost its relevance. More importantly, the culture that in the past fueled Intel s growth has now become ossified. In contrast to Andy Grove's reticence about the current Intel, the authors of Losing Faith share their objective observations on the post-Grove Intel, with its cultural anomalies that attempt to explain why the company has not been able to successfully diversify beyond its Grove-led dominance in microprocessors.
Customer Reviews:
You Reap What You Sow.......2007-09-30
This is a good read regarding the decline of the Intel Corporation. The book is based primarily upon the complaint that the corporation's employees are not held accountable for their actions and failures, especially when the actions are not in compliance with the corporation's own written codes of conduct and behavior. The authors attack the typical band-aide approach to many of the corporation's problems (which are primarily outside the technical fields of microprocessors, and deal with the supply and customer service side of the corporation). The book targets Andy Groves successors as CEO and Chairman of the Board -- their managerial style, lack of technical expertise in particular, and lack of involvement on a more personal level.
The book addresses the culture of those employees who survived the Grove tenure and their attitude of "entitledness" and the discord between these survivors and more recent employees. The book addresses a form of "careerism" (my term, not the authors)among the established managers. The authors criticism sounds a lot like the criticism found in some books about the Army officers "ticket punching" during the Vietnam era -- heck, it sounds a lot like the successfully promoted folks at the hospital where I work.
The authors play with kid gloves when the subject of Andy Grove comes up. They only more than hint that his "in-your-face" management style directly contributed to Intel's decline. They do not even discuss the Pentium debacle under Grove and the public relations disaster that ensued.
The authors also lightly touch upon the technical competence and backgrounds of Grove's successors, and this is important since they are not the technical geniuses that founded or nurtured Intel (Noyce, Moore, and Groves)-- most of their experience is not discussed but it is in marketing and other non-technical fields.
This is another good book discussing the ills of big corporations that lose their way in a fast changing world and fail to keep pace, especially after a level of arrogance rises within the corporation -- is Intel falling from its lofty heights just like IBM did -- is Microsoft not far behind. Stock holders should look closely at the trend of mis-management and the subsequent loss of billions of dollars (especially in bad acquistions and lack of overall business planning) that could have been paid out in dividends. Stockholders should hold the board of directors more responsible for rubber stamping poor CEO and chairman of the board's decisions/performance and not holding them more accountable.
Some good insights, but misses important parts of Intel.......2007-05-06
I worked at Intel for 8 years, so the book was very interesting to me. The insights on the lack of management development to tackle new businessnes (like networking) rang true to me. Also, the description of how to culture evloved to take on huge projects with poor results was a good insight.
The book completly fails to talk about the Technology & Manufacturing group which continues with amazing progress to shrink transistors economically. Intel leads the world in bringing new processes to high volume. The book also completly misses the differing cultures in the key design centers. Some design centers have had dramatically differing success than others over the past 15 years.
Probably Accurate but Unsubstantiated.......2007-04-06
This book focuses on many facets of Intel's operations and behaviors, from the annual employee review process (focal) to the company's poorly-executed acquisitions.
It's an interesting read, particularly for a (former or current) employee, contractor (Green Badge), or vendor. That being said, there was a fair amount in this book that was based on conjecture and anonymous quotes. Perhaps that's a necessary evil, but I tend to mistrust quotes offered by people who want to remain anonymous. Several parts of the book left me feeling like it was a seedy exposé rather than a critical assessment of the corporation.
My other criticism is that it seemed the book, throughout, was holding adherence to the Intel Values as the corporate marker of success (with every chapter presenting a comparison of the stated values and the actual behaviors). If that was the intent, I reject its validity. A positive and strong culture often has a good impact on the balance sheet and overall success, but that doesn't mean that if individual actions don't conform to stated values that it's "wrong." Maybe it's the Values that need to change.
On the up side, I think this may have been as balanced as it could be, given it was written by (former?) employees. Personally, I'd agree with many of the descriptions of corporate jockeying for recognition, co-opting ideas, and "grabbing the glory" and run. That being said, individual mileage may vary and I'm sure the opinions about this book and Intel itself are as varied as there are employees (and stockholders).
They tell it like it is!.......2007-03-21
Based on my 18 years at Intel ('79-'97), the authors do an excellent job of accurately describing the Intel culture throughout Intel's 38 year history. They explain the good and the bad and the ugly. This book can be a wakeup call for Intel and all of its employees and shareholders. The abuse of power during the Grove era comes with a price (what goes around, comes around). The advice that the authors provide is right on!
Amazon.com
Even those who think the idea of a "corporate soul" is an oxymoron will be persuaded by journalist David Batstone's whip-smart suggestions for how values can reinvent an organization's bad behavior. Saving the Corporate Soul alternates examples of principled companies like Clif Bar and Timberland with those of innovative leaders such as Denny's CEO Jim Adams, who recovered from a $54 million racial discrimination lawsuit to create a company hailed for its recruitment of minorities. Batstone demonstrates his core belief that "companies thrive once they align the ethics of the company with the values that drive its workers and customers." Readers worried about psychobabble can relax. The topics are nuanced and substantive; they include reputation as the guardian of a company's brand, restoring sanity to CEO compensation, operating with transparency, moving the company into the community, viewing the environment as a silent stakeholder, and defining core values for a global economy. Everyone in your organization should read this provocative and practical guide to the post-Enron era. --Barbara Mackoff
Book Description
Every day the media reports on the latest corporation guilty of financial misconduct and public deception. Insider trading, fraudulent accounting, outlandish executive pay and perksâ a steady stream of scandals scars the business landscape. But the corporate crisis is as much spiritual as it is financial. More than ever, the time is ripe for Saving the Corporate Soul. In this hard-hitting, thought-provoking book, David Batstone shows that a corporation has the potential to act with soul when it aligns its missions with the values of its workers and puts its resources at the service of the people it employs and the public it serves. He offers companies and their employees eight sound principles for "doing the right thing" andâ citing examples from firms like Timberland, General Motors, Clif Bar, and BPâ offers evidence that principled companies will excel financially over the long haul.
Customer Reviews:
Simple rules for building a good reputation and foundation of values...........2007-05-10
This book provides excellent examples and guidelines to putting the respected values back into corporations. I especially enjoyed the chapters on valuing the worker, transparency and integrity and customer care. I have seen how these, when in place, really explode the popularity and the growth of corporations, and when management deviates from the values for the short term buck, then corporations are then exposed in the media and start to fail (and people even cheer for their downfall). This is a great follow up to "The Naked Corporation" book, and both state that some sort of plan of transparency should be in place.
My question: will anyone act accordingly after reading this?.......2004-09-09
I say this book is worth reading, after watching The Corporation (the documentary).
You can read many books on "corporate responsability", ethics, and caring for the environment. But, when pressed for profits, in real life, when your job is on the line, would anyone "do the right thing"?.
Don't get me wrong... I praise the author for writing books like this one. And more like it are needed. But the question should be: aren't corporations, often almost-run by stockholders (with CEOs always on the line and on the brink of getting a kick by angry shareholders) and also the executives heavily influenced by wall street gurus, are all of them capable of "corporate responsability" and a long-term strategy?. I'd say no.
I think that companies that "sell out" to the stock market lose their soul, and become tools for a few speculators to "make a quick buck". A stable, responsible company then starts sailing at the mercy of a few stock market gurus and the volatility of the international stock markets. But of course, that is my personal opinion.
The Canadian documentary titled "The Corporation" (can't wait to see it on DVD - for the moment check out www.thecorporation.tv ), argues that Corporations as we know them today, and specially mutinational ones, are flawed by design.
The movie surprisingly got a great review on financial publication The Economist, which praised it:. It begins with a potted history of the company's legal form in America, noting the key 19th-century legal innovation that led to treating companies as persons under law. By bestowing on them the rights and protections that people enjoy, this legal innovation gave the company the freedom to flourish. So if the corporation is a person, ask the film's three Canadian co-creators, what sort of person is it?"
"The answer, elicited over two-and-a-half hours of interviews with right-wing captains of industry, economists, psychologists and philosophers, and left-wing intellectuals, is that the corporation is a psychopath. Like all psychopaths, the firm is singularly self-interested: its purpose is to create wealth for its shareholders. And, like all psychopaths, the firm is irresponsible, because it puts others at risk to satisfy its profit-maximising goal, harming employees and customers, and damaging the environment".
I repeat: try to read this book, and then watch The Corporation (the documentary), which shows the opinion of real execs, in real life. Both essays will make you think, probably getting in the way of your good night's sleep.
Picked low fruit missed the Agribusiness.......2003-05-29
This book is written very well and is pretty straightforward. So straight forward you can get most of the concepts of the book by reading the table of contents. There can't be much to argue with in the book because virtually every corporate hack who raked in the money during the obscene years is now preaching the same messages of corporate redemption. Expense stock options, treat employees fairly, create an environmental scorecard.... wake me up when it is over. In short, there is nothing new in these pages but the way it is recapped is very sweet primer on the subject. But my question is why did Batstone stop where he did? Where are the chapters relating to the ethics of afdvertising and PR? The ethics of obscene campaign contributions and political lobbying efforts? Where are the chapters about companies holding communities hostage by leveraging the threat of relocation for sweet tax deals? The chapters about what truly sustainable business practices mean about the globalization of companies?
Batstone does a nice job on the content he handles but fails miserably in addressing the core problems at the heart and soul of corporations today.
Excellent and Essential Advice.......2003-05-15
David Batstone's excellent book on corporate integrity is a must-read for executives and managers who want ideas on how to create profitable but soulful businesses that show heart as well as logic. This is not a text that preaches from the pulpit or revels in moral condemnation of Enron's misdeeds. For those of us who are sick to the teeth of reading Enron/Anderson post-mortems, Batstone's book will come as a refreshing change.
Reputation building has always been a profitable way to grow a business. `Reputation is not the same thing as a brand' Batstone says. Instead he says, `Reputation is the perceived character a company holds to public eye', which is probably the best definition this reviewer has read. Using the eight principles outlined in the book, managers are guided through examples that have helped or hindered individual companies. IKEA vs Home Depot for example is cited in the Community section of the book - the underlying principle being `A company will think of itself as part of a community as well as a market'. Which one would you rather have open a store in your community, and why? For the record, the residents of Mountain View, CA (a pretty town near to Silicon Valley) said they'd prefer an IKEA, and not because they like modular Swedish furniture.
The eight principles outlined in the book are:
Principle One: The directors and executives of a company will align their personal interests with the fate of stakeholders and act in a responsible way to ensure the vitality of the enterprise.
Principle Two: A company's business operations will be transparent to shareholder, employees and the public and its executives will stand by the integrity of their decisions.
Principle Three: A company will think of itself as part of a community as well as a market.
Principle Four: A company will represent its products honestly to customers and honor their dignity up to and beyond a transaction.
Principle Five: The worker will be treated as a valuable team member, not just a hired hand.
Principle Six: The environment will be treated as a silent stakeholder, a party to which the company is wholly accountable.
Principle Seven: A company will strive for balance, diversity and equality in its relationships with workers, customers and suppliers.
Principle Eight: A company will pursue international trade and production based on respect for the rights of workers and citizens of trade partner nations.
If you are looking for one book to share with others in your organization to start a discussion on integrity and reputation, Saving the Corporate Soul should be it.
The Book for our Times.......2003-04-29
Batstone shows by numerous examples, compelling stories, and shrewd analysis, that running a business with integrity and values intact is indeed "good business". This refreshing book provides welcome reading in a time dominated by corporate scandals and public cynicism. I recommend this book to EVERYONE!!
Book Description
Money and Capital Markets 9/e by Peter Rose and Milton Marquis provides a thorough and comprehensive view of the whole financial system. All the major types of financial institutions and financial instruments present today are discussed, along with how and why the system of money and capital markets is changing. Money and Capital Markets also provides a descriptive explanation of how interest rates and security values are determined. It discusses the current and future trends of the globalization of financial markets, the ongoing consolidation of the financial institutions’ sector, and recent efforts to protect consumer privacy in the financial services field.
Customer Reviews:
Best educational 4 weeks I have spent........2006-02-21
This book came with a strong recommendation from my pal Besife Tonwe. If you want an indepth, clear and educational insight into corporate finance then i don't think you could do better than getting this book. Part 3 is tougher going but don't worry too much - once you have read through the book you can go back and do the exercises to firm up your knowledge. Great buy.
Book Description
Two of the nation's most successful corporate leadership consultants now reveal their proven, systematic program for using the power of "high-integrity" politics to achieve career success, maximize team impact, and protect the company's reputation and bottom line.
Each day in business, a corporate version of "survival of the fittest" is played out. Power plays, turf battles, deceptions, and sabotages block individuals' career progress and threaten companies' resources and results. In Survival of the Savvy, Rick Brandon and Marty Seldman provide ethical but street-smart strategies for navigating corporate politics to gain "impact with integrity," helping readers to:
- Identify political styles at work through the Style Strengths Finder, and avoid being under or overly political
- Discover the corporate "buzz" on you, and manage the corporate "airwaves"
- Decipher unwritten company rules and protect yourself from sabotage and hidden agendas
- Build key networks to promote yourself and your ideas with integrity
- Learn to detect deception and filter misleading information
- Increase your team's organizational savvy, influence, and impact
- Gauge the political health of the company and forge a high-integrity political culture
In addition, Survival of the Savvy helps individuals discover and overcome their own political blind spots and vulnerabilities. They learn step-by-step methods to avoid being underestimated or denied full recognition for their achievements. It shows them how to put forward their ideas and advance their careers in an ethical manner, with a high level of political awareness and skill.
After reading this book, you will never have to say, "I didn't see it coming." Organizational savvy is a mission-critical competency for the complete leader. This timely and timeless book provides cutting-edge strategies and skills for surviving and thriving as you build individual and company success.
Download Description
"Two of the nation's most successful corporate leadership consultants now reveal their proven, systematic program for using the power of ""high-integrity"" politics to achieve career success, maximize team impact, and protect the company's reputation and bottom line. Each day in business, a corporate version of ""survival of the fittest"" is played out. Power plays, turf battles, deceptions, and sabotages block individuals' career progress and threaten companies' resources and results. In Survival of the Savvy, Rick Brandon and Marty Seldman provide ethical but street-smart strategies for navigating corporate politics to gain ""impact with integrity,"" helping readers to: Identify political styles at work through the Style Strengths Finder, and avoid being under or overly political Discover the corporate ""buzz"" on you, and manage the corporate ""airwaves"" Decipher unwritten company rules and protect yourself from sabotage and hidden agendas Build key networks to promote yourself and your ideas with integrity Learn to detect deception and filter misleading information Increase your team's organizational savvy, influence, and impact Gauge the political health of the company and forge a high-integrity political culture In addition, Survival of the Savvy helps individuals discover and overcome their own political blind spots and vulnerabilities. They learn step-by-step methods to avoid being underestimated or denied full recognition for their achievements. It shows them how to put forward their ideas and advance their careers in an ethical manner, with a high level of political awareness and skill. After reading this book, you will never have to say, ""I didn't see it coming."" Organizational savvy is a mission-critical competency for the complete leader. This timely and timeless book provides cutting-edge strategies and skills for surviving and thriving as you build individual and company success. "
Customer Reviews:
Useful, sensible, unexceptionable.......2007-10-23
This readable volume fills out useful details on how the moden corporate citizen can take stock of their devices for getting on and pick up many hints and tips that should improve their game.
None of it is really exceptional. Much of it feels very calculated and non authentic, but I did find it useful to highlight my habitual practice.
Its worth completing the questionnaire on line as a way to focus your reading.
Abort your aversion- you should be doing this already!.......2007-10-22
We all shudder at the work politics and rightly so- who hasn't been threatened by unethical behaviors. This book illustrates and enlightens those of us who have been avoiding this arena.
It is straightforward and clearly states how you can be successful without compromising values. It demonstrates how ethics play a strong role in success. It places in perspective how to be savvy and true to yourself and your goals. READ IT! You will use it as part of your portfolio for a long time
This is the only book that tells it like it is in business .......2007-10-21
Finally someone has spoken about "the elephant in the room." This book frankly and intelligently talks about the true measures of success in business and how, with integrity, to have the ultimate influence. The book has changed my life in terms of my attitudes and actions in the business world. I love the pracitcal and real life examples. A must read for anyone in the work world!
Innovative and Essential Strategies to Build Your Political Skills!.......2007-10-21
Innovative and practical ideas to assist those of us who believe our work should speak for itself vs. dealing with the political realities of corporate life. I've found the managing perceptions strategies extremely valuable in solidifying positive impressions and changing inaccuracies. The political style insights and self- assessment have assisted me in influencing more effectively in both my sales and coaching work. Leading change within organizations is supported by the ethical lobbying chapter. Add this book to your "read soon" list if you need to become more comfortable dealing with political obstacles that seem to interfere with getting the results you want for both your organization and your career.
A must read for anyone working in the corporate world.......2007-10-19
Survival of the Savvy is a must read for anyone working in the corporate world. It will open your eyes to the reality of politics and change your perspective on how to view them. Learn how your under-political "I am above all these politics" perspective is nieve and can hurt both your career and ultimately your company if you cannot get the important issues and projects you champion implemented. There are also plenty of tips for the over-political personalities. I especially like the emphasis on integrity throughout the book and the smart tactical strategies offered. I think this book has great value for anyone looking to advance, and get their ideas heard, in the corporate workplace.
Book Description
Thirty years ago, Henry Gadsden, the head of Merck, one of the world's largest drug companies, told Fortune magazine that he wanted Merck to be more like chewing gum maker Wrigley's. It had long been his dream to make drugs for healthy people so that Merck could "sell to everyone." Gadsden's dream now drives the marketing machinery of the most profitable industry on earth.
Drug companies are systematically working to widen the very boundaries that define illness, and the markets for medication grow ever larger. Mild problems are redefined as serious illness and common complaints are labeled as medical conditions requiring drug treatments. Runny noses are now allergic rhinitis, PMS has become a psychiatric disorder, and hyperactive children have ADD. When it comes to conditions like high cholesterol or low bone density, being "at risk" is sold as a disease.
Selling Sickness reveals how widening the boundaries of illness and lowering the threshold for treatments is creating millions of new patients and billions in new profits, in turn threatening to bankrupt health-care systems all over the world. As more and more of ordinary life becomes medicalized, the industry moves ever closer to Gadsden's dream: "selling to everyone."
Customer Reviews:
ver compelling.......2007-06-12
This book was a real eye-opener. The authors write very clearly, and it is well referenced. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants an introduction to just how crooked the relationship can be between 'Big pharma' and the medical profession.
Buying into SICKNESS.......2007-04-20
Ray Moynihan is a legend, and more importantly he appears to have some integrity and intelligence. While other so-called journalists unquestioningly accept what is spoon-fed to them from big Pharma, Moynihan bothers to look beneath the veneer created by PR and spin-doctoring. The book has been written so that non-medical people can understand it, but is referenced in order that health professionals can check the veracity of his claims - and he really doesn't claim anything he can't back up by referenced literature. I applaud Dr Pelton for reading the book at all, but feel a little sad that he doesn't go a little further and discover for himself that most modern theory of disease is based on little more than wishful thinking, huge profits and massive disinformation campaigns.
Think for Yourself.......2007-03-13
This book does an excellent job exposing where some companies have done wrong. I can write the same book about almost any industry in the country. Now how many of them have developed a life-changing drug like Enbrel? As others have pointed out, this book (and most others like it) do a miserable job of providing context. Our life expectancies are lower than other industrialized nations because we are the fatest people on the planet, I can only imagine what it would be like if we didn't take the drugs that keep us alive. Can people exercise and take care of themselves and avoid a lot of these issues? Sure they can-but they don't and then they go to the doctor expecting a miracle cure. Can they not feed their little kids pounds of high frucotse corn syrup and avoid turming them into 20 year old diabetics, sure they can-but they don't. Every doctor I've ever been to or talked to says they tell every patient to exercise and watch their diet first (before ever prescribing anything). When the patient fails to comply then the doctor does what they think is the best thing to keep their patient alive. Pharmas certainly do wrong things, like any other business, and they need to be policed, but they should not be the scapegoat for sensationalist journalists (who are, guess what, selling the news/books) and short-sighted politicians are are unwilling or unable to deal with the larger healthcare issues our nation now faces.
Read this book, but please read others as well (that ought to make Amazon happy!)-try some that don't agree with what the media has programmed you to think about big pharma-if you can find any.
Disappointed.......2007-03-08
The book presents ten examples of unethical conduct by pharmaceutical compnies in order to promote their products. The tactics include misrepresenting statistical facts, overstating health risks, influencing medical authorities, creating new medical conditions in order to sell drugs for them and so on.
All the facts in the book are true. But the impression the book creates is skewed. Modern medicine cannot exist without pharmaceutical industry, and the relationship between it and medical professionals is more complex than portrayed in this text. I also believe that most doctors deserve more credit when it comes to choosing treatments for their patients.
But opinions aside, the book actually is getting boring as it progresses, probably because it is clear how each chapter will end soon after the beginning. I also expected less political and more medical information. I also think the authors should have touched on other reasons of proliferation of drug culture in modern society.
Overall I was disappointed.
Should be required reading for ALL women and girls!!!.......2007-02-23
As a single woman writer with a very modest income, I have struggled and struggled for years to pay ever increasing health insurance premiums. Health costs are going through the ROOF and much of this is explained in "Selling Sickness."
And the coup de grace is Governor Perry's recent mandate that all 11 and 12-year-old girls be vaccinated against cervical cancer. In February 2007, USA Today reported that Perry *bypassed* the state legislature to force this law on the books. Three shots of this nice, new chemical will cost $360 and prevent only 70% of cervical cancers. Yet Perty is comparing this to the Polio vaccine?
"Selling Sickness" pulls back the curtain on the politically-charged (and financially inspired) machinations of the pharmaceutical industry and explains the mass manipulation. It's a very disturbing book, but also well documented, well researched and utterly fascinating.
Read it and weep - for America's health care system.
Book Description
Over the last 150 years the corporation has risen from relative obscurity to become the world's dominant economic institution. Eminent Canadian law professor and legal theorist Joel Bakan contends that today's corporation is a pathological institution, a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies.
In this revolutionary assessment of the history, character, and globalization of the modern business corporation, Bakan backs his premise with the following observations:
- The corporation's legally defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others.
- The corporation's unbridled self-interest victimizes individuals, society, and, when it goes awry, even shareholders and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal.
- Governments have freed the corporation, despite its flawed character, from legal constraints through deregulation and granted it ever greater authority over society through privatization.
But Bakan believes change is possible and he outlines a far-reaching program of achievable reforms through legal regulation and democratic control.
Featuring in-depth interviews with such wide-ranging figures as Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, business guru Peter Drucker, and cultural critic Noam Chomsky, The Corporation is an extraordinary work that will educate and enlighten students, CEOs, whistle-blowers, power brokers, pawns, pundits, and politicians alike.
Customer Reviews:
Loved, a great insight into how evil corporation are meant to be .......2007-09-26
this book is great, im glad I purchased, its a well worth read for anyone wanting to seek the truth about corporation. The books walks you the beginning of time where corporation we're first created as a strategic monopoly move to take over the trading businesses to our most recent times where scandal such as Enron emerged. With enough evidence to support it's case the author goes a great job breezing the user through.
Excellent, Honest, and Accurate Text about Corporations.......2007-06-24
This book is needed in a world where corporations have become more powerful than states. It is an honest reflection on what corporations are and what they do. The "evilness" is very accurate and can be researched through recorded historical precedents. It is no mystery or surprise that corporations are only interested in profit and nothing else. These institutions need to be understood for what they are. If they can be changed, people need to understand the corporate mandate for success and survival and recognize that it needs changing. It is the drive for profit that is destroying people and the world, and Bakan does an excellent job in analyzing this in clear, accurate language. Anyone who believes that this text is incorrect should spend some time in the real world, examining and studying the way these institutions operate and get away with murder, destruction, and theft.
This text cannot be recommended enough. Anyone who is interested in truth should read this book.
The Corporation.......2007-04-26
Joel Bakan's The Corporation provides great insight into the corruption and power of the corporation system and how it became the way it is. Explaining in the first few pages of the book that "The purpose of this book is to explore what the corporation, as an institution, truly is" Bakan goes deeply into the ways in which corporations have gained status since their creation in the sixteenth century. He also explores the extreme self-interest of corporations and how they manipulate, therefore govern our lives to a great extent. Bakan is explicitly against the idea of an almighty corporation system and gives many detailed suggestions on how to fix this massive problem within his writing.
I can respect where Bakan is coming from in The Corporation. He has probably been one of the many people who have felt subordinate and ripped off by a large and uncaring corporation, as many, if not most people have been. However, although most of his criticisms of the institution are probably valid, the extreme evilness of the corporation as he depicts may be out of proportion. We have to think, where would our lives be without the corporation? They provide most necessities for living in one way or another every day and although they may have too much power and are being run by the objective of gaining capitol, they still are a basic part of most peoples lives, especially those who want to live comfortably. If you are someone who has, however, felt cheated by a corporation, you will certainly agree with Bakan in this book.
Corporations are pathological: but maybe what we deserve... .......2006-09-02
Joel Bakan's THE CORPORATION is a short 167 pages. Yet, the book presents a complete thesis with all the requisite details and convincing examples.
His thesis is as follows: Corporations are entities created by governments. Originally the corporate form was created for specific purposes (such as canal building) to serve the public good. However, they transformed to become pathological, psychopathic entities that will do anything for profit.
What caused this transformation? Governmental legislation. For instance, governmental legislation introduced limited liability, so masses of stockholders would invest in corporations to finance large projects such as railroads (as the most they could loose was their initial investment, but their gain was limitless). However, such large numbers of owners could not all possibly run a corporation, leading to the fear that corporate managers would misuse funds (other people's money). Thus 'best interest of the corporation' principle was born, in which legislation REQUIRES companies to put shareholder financial interest, or profit, above all other interests.
Bakan goes into considerable depth as to what corporations will sink to in order to maximize profits, including 'externalization' which is transferring as much of their costs as possible onto vulnerable 'third parties' (ex, dumping toxic waste into rivers) and exploitation (ex, using sweatshop workers and making money from disasters such as 9-11), excessive lobbying of political leaders for deregulation (ex, of energy markets causing the enron scandal), manipulating children so they can manipulate parents (to buy not just toys and fast food, but cars and beer!) and fooling most of us with the rhetoric of 'social responsibility' (a public relations ruse to actually make more profit).
Bakan offers a number of both short-term and long-term suggestions on how to control this Frankenstein monster. Most importantly, we must remember that corporations are entities created and shaped by governmental legislation (the best interest principle and also pro-corporate legislation such as corporate law and property law), thus, they can be controlled and yes, even revoked, by governmental legislation.
In democratic societies, this ultimately means us! In the short term, we can increase pro-public regulation (and reduce pro-corporate legislation), remove corporate financing of elections, protect the public sphere from corporate infringement (such as utilities, education, health, parks, etc) and challenge neo-liberalistic ideologies. In the long term, we can work to create a more just human order by either changing corporate structures (ie, defining the 'best interest' principle more broadly than just profit, say by including human and environmental welfare) or by getting rid of corporations all together.
Bakan contends that ultimately, things will have to change because corporations and the corporate world-view are based on too narrow of a conception of humanity-self interest and greed. On the other hand, he believes that humans are empathic, compassionate creatures.
Unfortunately, I am not so sure. I am disturbed by nagging doubts that we as democratic citizens of the US maybe getting exactly the system we deserve. After all, many of us realize to some extent or another that corporations use sweatshop labor, yet we (including me) still buy Nike Shoes and shop at Walmart. Most of us realize that gas guzzling SUVs pollute the environment, but SUV are still very popular. Most of us realize that fast food isn't healthy but happily eat it anyway (not just the poor who can't afford many other options, but many middle class and wealthy Americans as well).
Are we really ready to push for regulation and change that, although may improve the world around us, may result in higher prices? Unfortunately, I would say probably not, barring another catastrophe such as the Great Depression, which indeed did result in powerful governmental regulation that reined in corporate power...for awhile.
A central reason why things are the way they are.......2006-06-06
After seeing the film I decided to read the book .This is a classic read.Short and to the point .This book lets you see how nice people can do evil and how if we don't either change the legal status of corporations or replace them with something better the future doesn't look pretty.
Books:
- Professionalism in Health Care: A Primer for Career Success (2nd Edition) (PROFESSIONALISM IN HEALTH CARE)
- Proven Strategies in Competitive Intelligence: Lessons from the Trenches
- Rich Dad's Advisors®: The ABC's of Building a Business Team That Wins: The Invisible Code of Honor That Takes Ordinary People and Turns Them Into a Championship Team (Rich Dad's Advisors)
- Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled: The Qualities You Need to Stay Out of Harm's Way and Thrive at Work
- Sensemaking in Organizations (Foundations for Organizational Science)
- Social Strategy & Corporate Structure (Studies of the Modern Corporation)
- Social Work Values and Ethics (Foundations of Social Work Knowledge Series)
- Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change
- Standards of Practice Handbook, 9th Edition
- Surveillance Countermeasures: A Serious Guide To Detecting, Evading, And Eluding Threats To Personal Privacy
Books Index
Books Home
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- Mastering the Chess Openings: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Modern Chess Openings, Volume 1
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Corporate Finance
| Finance
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods and Uses
Economics of Strategy
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition
Marketing Management (12th Edition) (Marketing Management)
Analysis for Financial Management + S&P subscription card
Schaum's Outline of Financial Management
The Wall Street MBA: Your Personal Crash Course in Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Demystified
Schaum's Quick Guide to Business Formulas: 201 Decision-Making Tools for Business, Finance, and Accounting Students
