At the age of thirteen, David Alliance was taken out of school by his father and apprenticed into the Grand Bazaar in Tehran, where he learned the business skills that were to prove invaluable in one of the most successful business careers of modern times. In 1950, with just ?14 in his pocket, he arrived in Manchester in search of textile bargains, going hungry and sometimes forced to sleep on the street. Six years later, however, when he was still only twenty-four, he bought a loss-making...

The instant New York Times bestseller about one man's battle to save hundreds of jobs by demonstrating the greatness of American business.The Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. Run by the same powerful Virginia family for generations, it was also the center of life in Bassett, Virginia. But beginning in the 1980s, the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately Bassett was forced to send its product...

More than two decades ago, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen arrived on the fashions scene when the business was in an artistic and economic rut. Both wanted to revolutionize fashion in a way no one had in decades. They shook the establishment out of its bourgeois, minimalist stupor with daring, sexy designs. They turned out landmark collections in mesmerizing, theatrical shows that retailers and critics still gush about and designers continue to reference.Their approach to fashi...

A fascinating dual biography of the women who founded today’s beauty industryThey were both born in the nineteenth century in humble circumstances–Helena Rubinstein in an orthodox Jewish household in Kraków, Poland, Elizabeth Arden on a farm outside Toronto. But by the 1930s, they were bitter rivals in New York, the rulers of dueling international beauty empires that would forever change the way women thought about cosmetics, salons, and wrinkles. This riveting bio...

“A rich history of a company whose cars, for better and worse, have touched millions of lives, a character study of a brilliant but deeply flawed leader, and a case study in how a corporate culture can turn toxic.” —Bethany McLean, New York Times Book ReviewFaster, Higher, Farther chronicles a corporate scandal that rivals those at Enron and Lehman Brothers—one that will cost Volkswagen more than $22 billion in fines and settlements. Through metic...

The exceptional, winding path of a man who is inseparable from the empire he builtCombining a tobacconist, newstand, food mart, beer shop and general store, the convenience store has undergone many transformations over the last 35 years, ever since a man decided to turn it into his life's business. That man is Alain Bouchard. Strangely, few people know his name, even in Quebec, where he lives. He is, however, one of Canada's wealthiest entrepreneurs, as well as one of the most peer...

One of the major figures in American history, Andrew Carnegie was a ruthless businessman who made his fortune in the steel industry and ultimately gave most of it away. He used his wealth to ascend the world's political stage, influencing the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. In retirement, Carnegie became an avid promoter of world peace, only to be crushed emotionally by World War I.In this compelling biography, Peter Krass reconstructs th...

Brilliant, captivating, and unforgettable memoirs from four of the greatest minds in American history.Penned between 1771 and 1790 and published after his death, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is one of the most acclaimed and widely read personal histories ever written. From his youth as a printer's assistant working for his brother's Boston newspaper through his own publishing, writing, and military careers, his scientific experiments and...

After joining the Australian Merchant Navy at the age of sixteen, Dick Jolly trained as an engineer before joining the Australian National Line as a cadet. After a four-year apprenticeship, he gradually gained promotion while travelling around the Australian coast. Fascinated by the world of commercial deep-sea tugs and salvage, his first real break came in Portsmouth in 1963 when he landed a job on RFA Typhoon. Relocating to Singapore and with a Foreign Going tugmaster's qualification und...

Like cotton, indigo has defied its humble origins. Left alone it might have been a regional plant with minimal reach, a localized way of dyeing textiles, paper, and other goods with a bit of blue. But when blue became the most popular color for the textiles that Britain turned out in large quantities in the eighteenth century, the South Carolina indigo that colored most of this cloth became a major component in transatlantic commodity chains. In Red, White, and Black Make Blue, An...

This work aims to establish how the extraordinary story of the Brunello Cucinelli SPA born even before the economic competition by the need to achieve sustainable economic development, namely the development model that is measured not only in relation to the amount of goods and services produced also and above in relation to the quality of life of the participants to the production.

This business leader's biography is "an honest book, a rare insight into the truth of what entrepreneurs face every day" (Maxine Clark, founder, Build-A-Bear Workshop; founding member, PROSPER Women Entrepreneurs).In No Fear Allowed, Laura Herring traces her story from psychologist to entrepreneur and then business leader, sharing her experience as the Founder and Chairwoman of IMPACT Group, a global company she grew to almost fifty million dollars. Filled...