BUSN 4897W. Honors Leadership Seminar
Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by
In just a decade and half Jack Ma, a man who rose from humble beginnings and started his career as an English teacher, founded and built Alibaba into the second largest Internet company in the world. The company's $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the world's largest, valuing the company more than Facebook or Coca Cola. Alibaba today runs the e-commerce services that hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers depend on every day, providing employment and income for tens of millions more. A Rockefeller of his age, Jack has become an icon for the country's booming private sector, and as the face of the new, consumerist China is courted by heads of state and CEOs from around the world.Granted unprecedented access to a wealth of new material including exclusive interviews, Clark draws on his own first-hand experience of key figures integral to Alibaba's rise to create an authoritative, compelling narrative account of how Alibaba and its charismatic creator have transformed the way that Chinese exercise their new found economic freedom, inspiring entrepreneurs around the world and infuriating others, turning the tables on the Silicon Valley giants who have tried to stand in his way. Duncan explores vital questions about the company's past, present, and future: How, from such unremarkable origins, did Jack Ma build Alibaba? What explains his relentless drive and his ability to outsmart his competitors? With over 80% of China's e-commerce market, how long can the company hope to maintain its dominance? As the company sets its sights on the country's financial and media markets, are there limits to Alibaba's ambitions, or will the Chinese government act to curtail them? And as it set up shop from LA and San Francisco to Seattle, how will Alibaba grow its presence and investments in the US and other international markets?Clark tells Alibaba's tale within the wider story of China's economic explosion--the rise of the private sector and the expansion of Internet usage--that haver powered the country's rise to become the world's second largest economy and largest Internet population, twice the size of the United States. He also explores the political and social context for these momentous changes. An expert insider with unrivaled connections, Clark has a deep understanding of Chinese business mindset. He illuminates an unlikely corporate titan as never before, and examines the key role his company has played in transforming China while increasing its power and presence worldwide.
ISBN: 9780062413420Publication Date: 2016-04-12
All That Glitters: Anna Wintour, Tina Brown, and the Rivalry Inside America's Richest Media Empire by
From the Bestselling Author and Television Producer of Masters of Sex, a True Story ofthe Intrigue and Infighting of Condé Nast, Anna Wintour, S. I. Newhouse Jr., and Tina Brown, and Optioned by Sony Television Productions Inside the Condé Nast magazine world run by billionaire S. I. Newhouse Jr., Anna Wintour and Tina Brown were bold and talented British women who fought their way to the top of this male-dominated American industry driven by greed and betrayal. Wintour became an icon of fashion and New York's high society, while Brown helped define the intersection of literary culture and Hollywood celebrity. They jockeyed for power in the hypercompetitive "off with their heads" atmosphere set up by Newhouse and his longtime creative guru Alex Liberman, two men who for years controlled the glossy Condé Nast magazines that dictated how women should look, dress, and feel. In turning this world upside down, Wintour and Brown challenged the old rules and made Newhouse's company internationally famous. Ultimately, one of them won in their fascinating struggle for fame and fortune during the height of New York's gilded age of print--a time before the internet, before 9/11, when the Reagans ruled the White House and Donald Trump was a mere local developer featured on the cover of Newhouse's publications. This book traces the careers of Wintour and Brown and shows how they and the Condé Nast media empire were major media enablers in the rise of Donald Trump and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. At its heart, All That Glitters is a parable about the changes in America's media, where corruption and easy compromises are sprinkled with glitter, power, and glory. Originally titled Newhouse, this revised and updated edition, with a new introduction and afterword, won the 1994 Frank Luther Mott Award for best researched media book of the year.
ISBN: 9781510744929Publication Date: 2019-09-03
Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire by
This New York Times bestseller is a "masterful" (The Washington Post), "juicy tour of the company [Jeff] Bezos built" (The New York Times Book Review), revealing the most important business story of our time by the bestselling author of The Everything Store. Almost ten years ago, Bloomberg journalist Brad Stone captured the rise of Amazon in his bestseller The Everything Store. Since then, Amazon has expanded exponentially, inventing novel products like Alexa and disrupting countless industries, while its workforce has quintupled in size and its valuation has soared to nearly two trillion dollars. It's almost impossible to go a day without encountering the impact of Jeff Bezos's Amazon, between services like Whole Foods, Prime Video, and Amazon's cloud computing unit, AWS, plus Bezos's ownership of The Washington Post. We live in a world run, supplied, and controlled by Amazon and its iconoclast founder. In Amazon Unbound, Brad Stone presents an "excellent" (The New York Times), deeply reported, vividly drawn portrait of how a retail upstart became of the most powerful and feared entities in the global economy. Stone also probes the evolution of Bezos himself--who started as a geeky technologist totally devoted to building Amazon, but who transformed to become a fit, disciplined billionaire with global ambitions, who ruled Amazon with an iron fist, even as he found his personal life splashed over the tabloids. Definitive, timely, and "engaging" (Jon Meacham, author of The Soul of America), Stone has provided an unvarnished portrait of a man and company that we couldn't imagine modern life without.
ISBN: 9781982132637Publication Date: 2021-05-11
Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's Legendary CEO by
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." --Satoru Iwata THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER "A welcome salve and a book that anyone who cares about gaming should own and read." - Forbes Satoru Iwata was the global president and CEO of Nintendo and a gifted programmer who played a key role in the creation of many of the world's best-known games. He led the production of innovative platforms such as the Nintendo DS and the Wii, and laid the groundwork for the development of the wildly successful Pokémon Go game and the Nintendo Switch. Known for his analytical and imaginative mind, but even more for his humility and people-first approach to leadership, Satoru Iwata was beloved by game fans and developers worldwide. In this motivational collection, Satoru Iwata addresses diverse subjects such as locating bottlenecks, how success breeds resistance to change, and why programmers should never say no. Drawn from the "Iwata Asks" series of interviews with key contributors to Nintendo games and hardware, and featuring conversations with renowned Mario franchise creator Shigeru Miyamoto and creator of EarthBound Shigesato Itoi, Ask Iwata offers game fans and business leaders an insight into the leadership, development, and design philosophies of one of the most beloved figures in gaming history.
ISBN: 9781974721542Publication Date: 2021-04-13
Beyond the Label: Women, Leadership, and Success on Our Own Terms by
The former global CEO of Chanel charts her unlikely path from literature major to global chief executive, guiding readers to move beyond the confines of staid expectations and discover their own true paths, strengths, and leadership values. Driven. Shy. Leader. Wife. Mother. We live in a world of categories -- labels designed to tell the world, and ourselves, who we are and ought to be. Some we may covet, others we may fear or disdain; but creating a life that's truly your own, means learning to define yourself on your own terms. In Beyond the Label, Maureen Chiquet charts her unlikely path from literature major to global chief executive. Sharing the inklings, risks and (re)defining moments that have shaped her exemplary career, Chiquet seeks to inspire a new generation of women, liberal arts grads, and unconventional thinkers to cultivate a way of living and leading that is all their own. Through vivid storytelling and provocative insights, Chiquet guides readers to consider the pressing questions and inherent paradoxes of creating a successful, fulfilling life in today's increasingly complex and competitive world. "Why should we separate art from business, feelings from logic, intuition from judgment?" Chiquet poses. "Who decided you can't be determined and flexible, introspective and attuned, mother and top executive? And where does it state standing unflinchingly in your vulnerability, embracing your femininity, won't make you stronger?" Wise, inspiring, and deeply felt, Beyond the Label is for anyone who longs for a life without limits on who she is or who she will become.
ISBN: 9780062655721Publication Date: 2017-04-18
Charging Ahead: GM, Mary Barra, and the Reinvention of an American Icon by
Mary Barra's quest to move GM to a manufacturer of electric cars has captured the attention of automobile aficionados, green-business advocates, and leaders of all types who have to admire Mary's toughness in moving forward despite the overwhelming obstacles in her path. A decade ago, no one would have guessed that GM would be the company poised to lead America into the future. At a time when business book readers seem endlessly fascinated by soaring tech giants like Amazon and Netflix, and ill-fated startups like WeWork and Theranos, why is it important to put the spotlight back on 112-year-old GM? Because Charlie Wilson's quip from 1952 is still true: What's good for GM is still good for America, and vice versa. America needs to transition to a new era of clean energy and environmentally sustainable transportation. We also need to adapt to a world with far fewer assembly-line jobs, but far more skilled jobs for people who can design, build, and operate robots and other high-tech machines. GM's attempt to lead those transitions is as important as it is dramatic. Equally compelling is the story of GM's CEO, Mary Barra, who against all odds took the reins at GM in 2014. Since that time, she has attempted to reinvent a century-old company and equip it for the biggest change in transportation since the internal combustion engine replaced the horse. In the process, she has been ripping out GM traditions by the roots--and taking flak from all sides. Her plan is to make GM--the company famed for the gas-burning Corvette, hulking Cadillac Escalade, and carbon-spewing Silverado pickup--purely electric and clean by 2035. She may not be as wealthy as Jeff Bezos, as brash as Elon Musk, or as powerful as Mark Zuckerberg, but Mary Barra is just as important as any of them. And as one of the most powerful female executives in the world, she is overdue for an in-depth look at her forward-thinking vision, her approach to leadership, and her accomplishments against the odds.
ISBN: 9781400233601Publication Date: 2022-09-20
Elon Musk by
#1 New York Times bestseller From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era--a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter. When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist. His father's impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive. At the beginning of 2022--after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth--Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. "I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life," he said. It was a wistful comment, not a New Year's resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world's ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground. For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?
ISBN: 9781982181307Publication Date: 2023-09-12
Invent and Wander : The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson by
In Jeff Bezos's own words, the core principles and philosophy that have guided him in creating, building, and leading Amazon and Blue Origin. In this collection of Jeff Bezos's writings—his unique and strikingly original annual shareholder letters, plus numerous speeches and interviews that provide insight into his background, his work, and the evolution of his ideas—you'll gain an insider's view of the why and how of his success. Spanning a range of topics across business and public policy, from innovation and customer obsession to climate change and outer space, this book provides a rare glimpse into how Bezos thinks about the world and where the future might take us. Written in a direct, down-to-earth style, Invent and Wander offers readers a master class in business values, strategy, and execution: The importance of a Day 1 mindset Why "it's all about the long term" What it really means to be customer obsessed How to start new businesses and create significant organic growth in an already successful company Why culture is an imperative How a willingness to fail is closely connected to innovation What the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us Each insight offers new ways of thinking through today's challenges—and more importantly, tomorrow's—and the never-ending urgency of striving ahead, never resting on one's laurels. Everyone from CEOs of the Fortune 100 to entrepreneurs just setting up shop to the millions who use Amazon's products and services in their homes or businesses will come to understand the principles that have driven the success of one of the most important innovators of our time. Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos is co-published by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, and Harvard Business Review Press.
ISBN: 9781647820718Publication Date: 2020-11-17
Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase by
In the midst of the most disastrous economic climate of Wall Street's history, one executive has weathered the storm more deftly than any other: Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. In 2008, while Dimon's competitors watched their companies crumble, JPMorgan not only survived, it made an astonishing $5 billion profit. Dimon's continued triumph in the face of an industry-wide meltdown has made him a paragon of finance. In Last Man Standing, award-winning journalist Duff McDonald provides an unprecedented and deeply personal look at the extraordinary figure behind JPMorgan's success. Using countless hours of interviews with Dimon and his full circle of friends, family, and colleagues, this definitive biography is by far the most comprehensive portrait of the man known as the Savior of Wall Street. Now, in an updated prologue, McDonald offers insight into the future of Wall Street and how Dimon will overcome the challenge of aggressive new regulation from Washington--and how he plans to continue to thrive as the world's preeminent banker.
ISBN: 9781439109717Publication Date: 2009-10-06
No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy by
Philanthro-capitalism: How charity became big business The charitable sector is one of the fastest-growing industries in the global economy. Nearly half of the more than 85,000 private foundations in the United States have come into being since the year 2000. Just under 5,000 more were established in 2011 alone. This deluge of philanthropy has helped create a world where billionaires wield more power over education policy, global agriculture, and global health than ever before. In No Such Thing as a Free Gift, author and academic Linsey McGoey puts this new golden age of philanthropy under the microscope--paying particular attention to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As large charitable organizations replace governments as the providers of social welfare, their largesse becomes suspect. The businesses fronting the money often create the very economic instability and inequality the foundations are purported to solve. We are entering an age when the ideals of social justice are dependent on the strained rectitude and questionable generosity of the mega-rich.
ISBN: 9781784786236Publication Date: 2016-10-04
Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century by
**A WALL STREET JOURNAL BUSINESS BESTSELLER • The riveting inside story of Elon Musk and Tesla's bid to build the world's greatest car—from award-winning Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter Tim Higgins.
“A deeply reported and business-savvy chronicle of Tesla's wild ride.” —Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review**
Tesla is the envy of the automotive world. Born at the start of the millennium, it was the first car company to be valued at $1 trillion. Its CEO, the mercurial, charismatic Elon Musk has become not just a celebrity but the richest man in the world.
But Tesla’s success was far from guaranteed. Founded in the 2000s, the company was built on an audacious vision. Musk and a small band of Silicon Valley engineers set out to make a car that was quicker, sexier, smoother, and cleaner than any gas-guzzler on the road. Tesla would undergo a hellish fifteen years, beset by rivals—pressured by investors, hobbled by whistleblowers. Musk often found himself in the public’s crosshairs, threatening to bring down the company he had helped build.
Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter Tim Higgins had a front-row seat for the drama: the pileups, breakdowns, and the unlikeliest outcome of all, success. A story of impossible wagers and unlikely triumphs, Power Play is an exhilarating look at how a team of innovators beat the odds—and changed the future.
ISBN: 9780385545464Publication Date: 2021
The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right by
One of corporate America's greatest foes shows how 12 CEOs he has known uniquely rejected narrow yardsticks of shareholder value by leading companies to larger models of prosperity and justice
Over the course of 7 decades Ralph Nader has been Corporate America’s fiercest critic. Supreme Court Justice William Powell singled out Nader in his infamous memo as the “single most effective antagonist of American business… [the] target of his hatred… is corporate power.”
But now, in a book that will surprise both his fans and critics, Nader profiles a small group of CEOs who he believes performed extraordinarily well as business leaders and civic reformers, some well-known, some not, who should be celebrated as exceptions whose life and career should be a course of emulation and inspiration for students of business, executives and the wider citizenry.
This select group of mavericks and iconoclasts — which includes The Body Shop’s Anita Roddick, Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard, Vanguard’s John Bogle and Busboys and Poets' Andy Shallal —give us, Nader writes, “a sense of what might have been and what still could be if business were rigorously framed as a process that was not only about making money and selling things but improving our social and natural world.”
ISBN: 9781685891084Publication Date: 2023
The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A memoir of leadership and success: The CEO of Disney shares the ideas and values he embraced while reinventing one of the world's most beloved companies and inspiring the people who bring the magic to life. AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, during a difficult time. Competition was more intense than ever and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company's history. His vision came down to three clear ideas: Recommit to the concept that quality matters, embrace technology instead of fighting it, and think bigger--think global--and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets. Today, Disney is the largest, most admired media company in the world, counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox among its properties. Under Iger's leadership, Disney's value grew nearly five times what it was, making Iger one of the most innovating and successful CEOs of our era. In The Ride of a Lifetime, Robert Iger shares the lessons he learned while running Disney and leading its 220,000-plus employees, and he explores the principles that are necessary for true leadership, including: * Optimism. Even in the face of difficulty, an optimistic leader will find the path toward the best possible outcome and focus on that, rather than give in to pessimism and blaming. * Courage. Leaders have to be willing to take risks and place big bets. Fear of failure destroys creativity. * Decisiveness. All decisions, no matter how difficult, can be made on a timely basis. Indecisiveness is both wasteful and destructive to morale. * Fairness. Treat people decently, with empathy, and be accessible to them. This book is about the relentless curiosity that has driven Iger since the day he started as the lowliest studio grunt at ABC. It's also about thoughtfulness and respect, and a decency-over-dollars approach that has become the bedrock of every project and partnership Iger pursues, from a deep friendship with Steve Jobs in his final years to an abiding love of the Star Wars mythology. "The ideas in this book strike me as universal" Iger writes. "Not just to the aspiring CEOs of the world, but to anyone wanting to feel less fearful, more confidently themselves, as they navigate their professional and even personal lives."
ISBN: 9780399592096Publication Date: 2019-09-23
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by
In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight "offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh" (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company's early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world's most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of the year and called it "an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It's a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do." Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike's annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight's Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers--as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand--and a culture--that changed everything.
ISBN: 9781501135934Publication Date: 2016-04-26
Where You Are Is Not Who You Are: A Memoir by
The first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company looks back at her life and her career at Xerox, sharing unique insights on American business and corporate life, the workers she has always valued, racial and economic justice, how greed is threatening democracy, and the obstacles she's conquered being Black and a woman. "I am a black woman, I do not play golf, I do not belong to or go to country clubs, I do not like NASCAR, I do not listen to country music, and I have a masters degree in engineering. I, like a typical New Yorker, speak very fast, with an accent and vernacular that is definitely New York City, definitely Black. So when someone says I'm going to introduce you to the next CEO of Xerox, and the options are lined up against a wall, I would be the first one voted off the island." In 2009, when she was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the Xerox Corporation, Ursula Burns shattered the glass ceiling and made headlines. But the media missed the real story, she insists. "It should have been 'how did this happen How did Xerox Corporation produce the first African American woman CEO' Not this spectacular story titled, "Oh, my God, a Black woman making it." In this smart, no-nonsense book, part memoir and part cultural critique, Burns writes movingly about her journey from tenement housing on Manhattan's Lower East Side to the highest echelons of the corporate world. She credits her success to her poor single Panamanian mother, Olga Racquel Burns--a licensed child-care provider whose highest annual income was $4,400--who set no limits on what her children could achieve. Ursula recounts her own dedication to education and hard work, and how she took advantage of the opportunities and social programs created by the Civil Rights and Women's movements to pursue engineering at Polytechnic Institute of New York. Burns writes about overcoming the barriers she faced, as well as the challenges and realities of the corporate world. Her classmates and colleagues--almost all white males--"couldn't comprehend how a Black girl could be as smart, and in some cases, smarter than they were. They made a developed category for me. Unique. Amazing. Spectacular. That way they could accept me." Her thirty-five-year career at Xerox was all about fixing things, from cutting millions to save the company from bankruptcy to a daring $6 billion acquisition to secure its future. Ursula also worked closely with President Barack Obama as a lead on his STEM initiative and Chair of his Export council, where she traveled with him on an official trade mission to Cuba, and became one of his greatest admirers. Candid and outspoken, Ursula offers a remarkable look inside the c-suites of corporate America through the eyes of a Black woman--someone who puts humanity over greed and justice over power. She compares the impact of the pandemic to the financial crisis of 2007, condemns how corporate culture is destroying the spirit of democracy, and worries about the workers whose lives are being upended by technology. Empathetic and dedicated, idealistic and pragmatic, Ursula demonstrates that, no matter your circumstances, hard work, grit and a bit of help along the way can change your life--and the world.
ISBN: 9780062879301Publication Date: 2022-06-07
Worth It: How a Million-Dollar Pay Cut and a $70,000 Minimum Wage Revealed a Better Way of Doing Business by
Dan Price gained worldwide attention in 2015 when he announced that he was instituting a $70,000 minimum wage at his company, Gravity Payments, and would slash his $1 million salary in order to pay for it. While many praised the decision as a bold step toward combating income inequality in the United States, others vilified Price as a radical socialist whose "experiment" was doomed to fail. But behind the headlines and controversy lay a much more nuanced and personal story--a story of an entrepreneur who realized he could no longer claim to be sticking up for his values if he continued to pay his employees anything less than a living wage. How could a business dedicated to helping small businesses succeed fulfill its mission if the people responsible for helping those businesses were struggling to meet their own most basic needs? In this book, Price shares the experiences and events that shaped his decision--from his conservative, Christian upbringing in rural Idaho to the milestones that made him rethink the true purpose of business--and shows how taking a huge risk ultimately helped his company become more resilient and competitive. Calling on leaders to set and execute on their own purpose-driven visions, Price forces readers to question traditional market-centric business wisdom in favor of a more human--and much more sustainable--approach. It's not easy, he argues, but, in the end, the rewards will be worth it.
ISBN: 9781734157215Publication Date: 2020-04-13
