Discover New Releases Audiobooks in Business, Commerce & Economy

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Title: Car Guys vs. Bean Counters

Subtitle: The Battle for the Soul of American Business

Author: Bob Lutz

Narrator: Norman Dietz

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-13-11

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 184 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

In 2001, General Motors hired Bob Lutz out of retirement with a mandate to save the company by making great cars again. He launched a war against penny pinching, office politics, turf wars, and risk avoidance. After declaring bankruptcy during the recession of 2008, GM is back on track thanks to its embrace of Lutz's philosophy. When Lutz got into the auto business in the early sixties, CEOs knew that if you captured the public's imagination with great cars, the money would follow. The car guys held sway, and GM dominated with bold, creative leadership and iconic brands like Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, GMC, and Chevrolet. But then GM's leadership began to put their faith in analysis, determined to eliminate the "waste" and "personality worship" of the bygone creative leaders. Management got too smart for its own good. With the bean counters firmly in charge, carmakers (and much of American industry) lost their single-minded focus on product excellence. Decline followed. Lutz's commonsense lessons (with a generous helping of fascinating anecdotes) will inspire readers at any company facing the bean counter analysis-paralysis menace.

Editorial Reviews:

Bob Lutz is at his best when recounting specific anecdotes that shed light on the American car industry's recent history and predicaments. One particularly funny story that does much to illustrate his general point of view is about properly sealing new cars. To test the quality of the seal, engineers would put a cat in a recently finished car overnight. If the cat was lethargic the next morning from lack of fresh air, the seal was good. If the cat was energetic, the seal was bad. In General Motor's cars, Lutz jokes, the cat was missing.

Although Lutz occasionally digresses into overly-political or self-centered diatribes about media bias and global warming, he does have intensely interesting things to say overall. Car Guys vs. Bean Counters succeeds in the moments that are focused on the dichotomy between the two main characters in this story. The bean counters, with their metrics-based cost-cutting corporate culture approach, are left scratching their heads as customers run screaming from the shoddy GM cars they've produced. Meanwhile, the car guys, frustrated and powerless, are tasked with trying to figure out last ditch solutions to the problems that this numbers-based approach has caused. Lutz's push, which is ultimately effective, is to put common sense solutions into practice, from the beginning to the end of the manufacturing process.

Narrator Norman Dietz is the perfect conduit for these lessons. Lutz's grandfatherly wisdom calls for a seasoned, austere tone. Dietz's performance delivers this element effortlessly.

Lutz's most salient point is to remember to keep thinking objectively, regardless of whatever story the numbers might be telling. Weird corporate metrics-focused ideology, like GM's overly analytical and complex "Culture of Excellence," is a useless deadweight that the company must drag around through a bad economy, shaky union negotiations, and a number of increasingly competitive Japanese companies.

As numbers become more and more fundamental to the general decision-making process, things get more and more absurd.

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Title: Tangled Webs

Subtitle: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff

Author: James B. Stewart

Narrator: Michael Kramer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-03-11

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 52 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Best-selling author James B. Stewart's newsbreaking investigation of our era's most high-profile perjurers, revealing the alarming extent of this national epidemic.

Our system of justice rests on a simple proposition: that witnesses will raise their hands and tell the truth. In Tangled Webs, James B. Stewart reveals in vivid detail the consequences of the perjury epidemic that has swept our country, undermining the very foundation of our courts.With many prosecutors, investigators, and participants speaking for the first time, Tangled Webs goes behind the scene of the trials of media and homemaking entrepreneur Martha Stewart; top White House political adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby; home-run king Barry Bonds; and Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff.

The saga of Martha Stewart's conviction captured the nation, but until now no one has answered the most basic question: Why would Stewart risk prison, put her entire empire in jeopardy, and lie repeatedly to government investigators to save a few hundred thousand dollars in stock gains? Moreover, how exactly was the notoriously meticulous Stewart brought down?

Drawing on the accounts of then-deputy attorney general James Comey and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, Stewart sheds new light on the Libby investigation, making clear how far into the White House the Valerie Plame CIA scandal extended, and why Libby took the fall.

In San Francisco, Giants home-run king Barry Bonds faces trial due to his testimony before a grand jury investigating the use of illegal steroids in sports. Bonds was warned explicitly that the only crime he faced was perjury. Stewart unlocks the story behind the mounting evidence that he nonetheless lied under oath.

Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme is infamous, but less well known is how he eluded detection for so long in the face of repeated investigations. Of the four he is the only one who has admitted to lying.The perjury outbreak is symptomatic of a broader breakdown of ethics in American life. It isn't just the judicial system that relies on an honor code: Academia, business, medicine, and government all depend on it. Tangled Webs explores the age-old tensions between greed and justice, self-interest and public interest, loyalty and duty. At a time when Americans seem hungry for moral leadership and clarity, Tangled Webs reaffirms the importance of truth.

Members Reviews:

in great detail

Stewart walks us through several high profile cases involving, amongst other things, perjury. The Martha Stewart and Bernie Madoff segments were particularly interesting, in large part due to the tremendous detail that was included. Narration was first rate.

Entitled to Lie

Lying has become so common place in American life and business that we don't think of it as wrong until some one gets caught and charged with a crime.

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Title: The Mesh

Subtitle: Why the Future of Business Is Sharing

Author: Lisa Gansky

Narrator: Lisa Gansky

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-23-10

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 44 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Traditional businesses follow a simple formula: create a product or service, sell it, collect money. But in the last few years a fundamentally different model has taken rootone in which consumers have more choices, more tools, more information, and more peer-to-peer power. Pioneering entrepreneur Lisa Gansky calls it the Mesh and reveals why it will dominate the future of business.

Mesh companies use social media, wireless networks, and data crunched from every available source to provide people with goods and services at the exact moment they need them, without the burden and expense of owning them outright. Gansky reveals how there is real money to be made and trusted brands and strong communities to be built in helping your customers buy less but use more.

Consider the explosive growth of Zipcar. By exploiting the latest technology and making it easy and affordable to have a car whenever you need one, this young company is helping to redefine personal transportation - and deeply worrying its established competitors. Gansky shows how the same pattern is playing out with less famous Mesh companies that are reinventing an enormous range of industries.

In the tradition of The Long Tail, The Mesh illustrates a huge opportunity thats already driving new businesses and renewing old ones. Its your essential guide to the next wave of information-enabled commerce thats also improving our communities and our planet.

Critic Reviews:

This audiobook offers a timely introduction to the reality and importance of Mesh companiesones that provide products and services through sharing, via community participation and a culture of trustin a way that really matters. (Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist)

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Title: Warren Buffett and the Art of Stock Arbitrage

Subtitle: Proven Strategies for Arbitrage and Other Special Investment Situations

Author: Mary Buffett, David Clark

Narrator: Karen White

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-09-10

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 32 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

"Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to arbitrage and you will feed him forever." ---Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett and the Art of Stock Arbitrage is the first book to explore the secret world of Warren Buffett's arbitrage and special situations investing. Long considered one of the most powerful and profitable yet least understood of Buffett's investment operations, these special types of investments have been the edge that has made Warren Buffett the world's greatest investor. This book examines Buffett's special brand of arbitrage investing, which involves taking advantage of short-term price discrepancies that often occur when one company offers to buy another company. Though these discrepancies are small, they offer almost risk-free investment opportunities that have given Buffett an average annual rate of return of 23 percent on his invested capital. Buffett's strategies for investing in special situations like spin-offs, liquidations, recapitalizations, and tender offers are also explained. This body of investment opportunities, though small in number, has allowed Buffett to make substantial investments that give him high returns with very little risk.

Mary Buffett and David Clark, the authors of four best-selling books on Warren Buffett's investment methods, take the listener deep into the world of Buffett's arbitrage and special situation operations, giving us his strategies, his math equations for determining value, and dozens of examples of his investments in this very lucrative segment of investment operations. In the years that Buffett's normal portfolio of long-term investments has done poorly, it is his investments in arbitrage and special situations that have lifted his performance to the record levels that have made him the second richest man in the world.

Members Reviews:

This is a great book on arbitrage

Warren Buffet is the MAN!!!

Good book.

Downloaded it. Good book.

Amazing reading

Successfully combined & briefed the the topics with the Buffet's tactics. Though the book has a potential to elaborate more on the arbitrage knowledge, but the given briefing is quite enough. Anyway, the main thing here is Buffet's arbitrage tactics.

good book, easily readable

good book,easily readable,informative.

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Title: Theory of the Business

Subtitle: A Clear Focus on Your Core Mission

Author: Peter Drucker

Narrator: Deaver Brown

Format: Unabridged

Length: 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-02-10

Publisher: Simply Media

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 33 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

This audiobook was created based on Peter Drucker's long business, consulting, and writing career. He focuses on what to do, what not to do, and how to keep a clear corporate identity and mission.

He addresses how all organizations eventually go obsolete and their theory of their business no longer works. It addresses how GM did not move from income based to lifestyle based marketing for their cars, thus hastening their demise after seven decades of success betting on incomes only. He also points out, though, that the GM theory of the business still worked for Hughes and EDS, which GM bought. He describes how organizations must choose how to do things. This, he says, is why IBM was paralyzed by the different requirements of a PC versus Mainframe business.

He states there are four specifications for a valid theory of a business: assumptions must fit reality; these assumptions about the environment, mission, and core competencies must fit together; the entire organization must know and understand the theory of the business and act accordingly; and the theory of the business must be tested constantly to be kept up to date. When testing the theory of the business, three things must be done if there is an issue: preventive care, early diagnosis before the problem becomes fatal, and applying the cure.

This is a must read for all managers and entrepreneurs in all types of organizations: nonprofit, educational, governmental and companies.

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Title: The New Empire of Debt

Subtitle: The Rise and Fall of an Epic Financial Bubble

Author: William Bonner, Addison Wiggin

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-19-09

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 71 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

In the last half of 2008, the Empire of Debt received the margin call from Hell. Now, all of its citizens are asked to pay up as the U.S. economy stumbles down a dangerous path of financial turmoil. What exactly went wrong?

When things are good, people tend to believe the most outrageous things - that the financial sector could get rich by lending money to people who couldn't pay it back, and that a whole economy could flourish by luring consumers to spend more than they could afford. These hallucinations created an immense worldwide bubble of debt and dollars. And now - with the U.S. government inflating the biggest bubble in public debt the world has ever seen - a financial whirlpool has formed and threatens to drag the entire country down the drain.

In The New Empire of Debt, the internationally acclaimed author team of William Bonner and Addison Wiggin return to reveal how the epic financial bubble that is plaguing the United States will soon bring an end to this once great empire. They offer a frightening look at the United States' precarious position and discuss how government control of the economy and financial system - combined with unfettered deficit spending and gluttonous consumption - has ravaged the business environment, devastated consumer confidence, and pushed the global economy to the brink. They warn of the dangers that lie ahead and offer practical advice to protect your financial well-being as the American empire collapses upon itself.

You'll discover that you don't have to tie your own fate to the inevitable destruction of America's system of imperial finance. Instead you can take some simple steps to weather the crisis. Bonner and Wiggin have been studying the financial landscape for more than 20 years. Now, they not only show you how we got into this mess, but how to get yourself out of it.

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Title: In Fed We Trust

Subtitle: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic

Author: David Wessel

Narrator: Dan Woren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-04-09

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 137 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

That was Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's vow as the worst financial panic in more than 50 years gripped the world and he struggled to avoid the once unthinkable: a repeat of the Great Depression.

Brilliant but temperamentally cautious, Bernanke researched and wrote about the causes of the Depression during his career as an academic. Then, when thrust into a role as one of the most important people in the world, he was compelled to boldness by circumstances he never anticipated.

The president of the United States can respond instantly to a missile attack with America's military might, but he cannot respond to a financial crisis with real money unless Congress acts. The Fed chairman can. Bernanke did. Under his leadership the Fed spearheaded the biggest government intervention in more than half a century and effectively became the fourth branch of government, with no direct accountability to the nation's voters.

Believing that the economic catastrophe of the 1930s was largely the fault of a sluggish and wrongheaded Federal Reserve, Bernanke was determined not to repeat that epic mistake. In this penetrating look inside the most powerful economic institution in the world, David Wessel illuminates its opaque and undemocratic inner workings, while revealing how the Bernanke Fed led the desperate effort to prevent the world's financial engine from grinding to a halt.

Critic Reviews:

"David Wessel brings his deep knowledge of the Federal Reserve and U.S. politics and economics to a topic that will be studied by historians for decades to come....No one can understand what happened and what did not happen without reading this book." (Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics and author of Globalization and its Discontents)

Members Reviews:

A must-read for Fed watchers

It is a well-researched book giving the Fed's side of the story of how the present financial crisis developed and was managed. A must-read for those interested in politics and policy of money, inflation, financial markets and financial stability, to be read together with Charles Morris' 'The two trillion dollar meltdown' (which gives a market side of the things). Taking of the Fed perspective to describe the crisis is in itself unique and certainly worth a praise - it rightly focuses on the central bank as a the main nerve in crisis management, while demystifying its workings and providing a lot of colorful inside detail. Yet a few criticisms can be made. First, the book tries to be three things at once: a primer on the Fed's history and functions, a journalistic recounting of how the Fed behaved in the crisis since August 2007 and a biographical background to a few key players - Ben Bernanke and his closest lieutenants. The way those three streams are mixed sometimes seems a bit too arbitrary - I imagine heavily indexing the print copy of the book to be able to fully recover the three intertwined stories. Also: having an European background I noticed the author is rather loose on covering the interaction between the European Central Bank and the Fed in the crisis - which should in fact be a fourth major story line.

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Title: Sages

Subtitle: Warren Buffett, George Soros, Paul Volcker, and the Maelstrom of Markets

Author: Charles R. Morris

Narrator: Sean Runnette

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-25-09

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 34 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Throughout the violent financial disruptions of the past several years, three men have stood out as beacons of judgment and wisdom: Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Paul Volcker. Though their experiences and styles vary - Buffett is the canny stock-market investor, Soros the reader of shifting global tides in trade and currencies, Volcker the regulator and governor, sheriff and clean-up crew - they have very much in common.

All three men have more than 50 years of deepinvolvement in markets. All are skeptical of Wall Street frenzies. They believe that markets tend to be right, but usually only over the medium term. Today, all three are key economic advisors to President Obama.

With the benefit of his own deep understanding of markets and finance, Morris brilliantly analyzes the records of these men, distils their wisdom and experience, and argues for the importance of consistent values in navigating the treacherous terrain of today's globalized world.

Critic Reviews:

"Provocative... the first big book in the credit crunch saw the crisis coming three years ago." Economist "[B]oth thought-provoking for experts and a readable primer on events for the layperson." (Financial Times)

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Title: The Housing Boom and Bust

Author: Thomas Sowell

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-13-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 356 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

This book is designed to unravel the tangled threads of that story. It also attempts to determine whether what is being done to deal with the problem is more likely to make things better or worse.

Critic Reviews:

"Among economists of the past thirty years, [Sowell] stands very proud indeed." (Wall Street Journal)

Members Reviews:

Inciteful Non partisan blame

I read other reviews of this book before buying. The ones who rated it poorly seemed never to have read the book in its entirety.

Mr Sowell is a gifted communicator. He backs up his view with facts and statistics. He implicates those who deserve blame regardless of political affiliation, or business affiliation. He calls it like he sees it and I concur with the evidenciary findings he brings to light.

Informative, especially for this liberal listener

I was reluctant to hear Sowell due to his right leaning, and my left leaning, politics. But I am very glad I did. His book is very clearly written. While I did not agree with all of his suppositions and conclusions, I found them to be well reasoned and supported. I also found his tone to be far less severe than I feared. He does not treat the left with kid gloves, but he does not employ the hyperbole and theatrics of other current conservative authors. Most important is that I feel much more informed, and curious, about economics and politics as a whole after having listened to this book. Any book that held my attention though out, and inspired me to ask more questions and seek more information, is a 4-5 star listen for me. What makes this one a 5 star listen is the excellent narration by Robertson Dean (who kept reminding me of a serious Elliot Gould).

Explains the Bust

Provides a lot of details on how we ended up in this housing trouble. There's a lot more to it than I realized.

Right to the Point

Thomas Sowell has his detractors, but this is another of his books well worth reading whatever your point of view. Essentially he sets out to explain how the Housting Boom came about and what the resulting Bust means to the average American. He is best when he describes the affordable housing movement and its ramifications. His point of view may not appeal, but his analysis and presentation can't be faulted.

If you are scratching your head about the current real estate problem - start here.

very good

Another great book by Thomas Sowell.

I have read most of his writings. The clarity of his thoughts and his intelligence is amazing.

Another classic for the 'weekend' economist.

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Title: Google Speaks

Subtitle: Secrets of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page

Author: Janet Lowe

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-12-09

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 115 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Following in the footsteps of her best-selling Warren Buffett Speaks - written in a conversational style that successfully captures the essence of these business leaders - Janet Lowe reveals the amazing story behind one of the most important new companies of our time by exploring the people and philosophies that have made Google a global phenomenon in less than 15 years.

She offers an engaging look at how its founders transformed their vision of a better Internet search engine into a business colossus with about $16 billion in annual revenue. Lowe discusses the values that drive Brin and Page - both living fairly modest lives despite each having a net worth of over $15.9 billion - and details how they have created a culture that fosters fun, yet keeps Google at the forefront of technology through relentless R&D investments and imaginative partnerships with organizations such as NASA.

Examining Google's breakthrough business strategies, which transformed online advertising and changed the way we look at corporate responsibility and employee relations, we see why Google may be a harbinger of where corporate America is headed. Also addressed are controversies surrounding Google, such as copyright infringement, antitrust concerns, and personal privacy.

Critic Reviews:

"It's not hard to see that Google is a phenomenal company...At Geico, we pay these guys a whole lot of money for this and that key word." (Warren Buffett)

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