Frank Hasenfratz grew up in Hungary learning to dodge bullets and avoid land mines during the Second World War. When the 1956 revolution erupted, he and his army unit joined the insurgents. After the revolution was crushed, he fled to Guelph, Ontario, where he gambled everything on a one-man operation making oil pumps for Ford. The company he founded, Linamar, today has 15,000 employees in eight countries and is the second-largest maker of auto parts in Canada. To create this global empire...

A refreshingly honest memoir about politics and private lifeFew Canadians have served their nation as well and as widely as the Honourable Darcy McKeough. He was elected Member of Provincial Parliament for Chatham–Kent, Ontario, five times between 1963 and 1977. In 1967 he was mockingly dubbed the Duke of Kent by an opposition MPP, a title he has worn as a badge of honour ever since. As Treasurer of Ontario, Minister of Municipal Affairs, and Minister of E...

Chances are…you are looking at yours right now. They are--quite literally--everywhere. US President Barack Obama admits he cannot live without it. Oprah Winfrey, reigning queen of daytime TV, declared on air that the BlackBerry is one of her "favorite things." BusinessWeek put the case for owning one bluntly in an article entitled simply: "No BlackBerry. No Life." From its relatively modest debut in 1999, the BlackBerry has emerged almost overnight to become the most necessary and sought afte...

In this engaging book, award-winning business writer Rod McQueen examines how the pugnacious personality and hard-driving leadership style of Dominic D'Alessandro led Manulife Financial to its position as one of the largest and most profitable life insurance companies in North America, and the fourth largest in the world. From D'Alessandro's role in the successful demutualization and conversion of the company to public company status in 1999, which set the stage for Manulife to become a wo...

In June 2000, Edgar Bronfman Jr. sold Seagram Co. to French media giant Vivendi in a $34-billion deal. Young, handsome and fabulously rich, Edgar Jr. seemed finally to have silenced the detractors who for fifteen years had scorned him, calling him a naïve dilettante and “the star-struck whisky king.”As the third-generation president and CEO of a family dynasty in the booze business, Edgar Jr. had made controversial corporate decisions. In 1995 he sold Seagram’s holding in the secur...

"At a certain point in our lives we are left only with our close relationships and our clear recollections." So begins Thumper: The Memoirs of the Honourable Donald S. Macdonald.An early supporter of Pierre Trudeau for the Liberal Party leadership, Donald Macdonald has had a career in public life spanning four decades that included posts as House leader, minister of national defence, minister of energy, and minister of finance. He chaired the landmark Royal Commission on t...

How does a venerable institution adapt quickly to sometimes volatile global markets and shifting domestic demands of the late twentieth century?In A History of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Volume 5 1973–1999, the story of CIBC unfolds amidst a backdrop of world-changing events, economic booms and busts, and memorable moments in Canadian history. This era of the bank saw challenges such as the OPEC crisis and recession-driven collapses of iconic companies like Massey...

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE BLACKBERRY#1 National BestsellerWinner of the National Business Book AwardIt was a classic modern business story: two Canadian entrepreneurs build an iconic brand that would forever change the way we communicate. From its humble beginnings in an office above a bagel store in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry outsmarted the global giants with an addictive smartphone t...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER • The definitive account of the 2008 economic crisis, from the award-winning financial columnist and founder of DealBook, with unparalleled behind-the-scenes access to the key players on Wall Street and in Washington“Too Big to Fail is too good to put down. . . . It is the story of the actors in the most extraordinary financial spectacle in [over] 80 years, and it is told brilliantly.” —The Economist

The authoritative account of the rise of Amazon and its intensely driven founder, Jeff Bezos, praised by the Seattle Times as "the definitive account of how a tech icon came to life."Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn't content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store, offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To do so...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The game-changing author of The 4-Hour Workweek teaches you how to reach your peak physical potential with minimum effort.“A practical crash course in how to reinvent yourself.”—Kevin Kelly, WiredIs it possible to reach your genetic potential in 6 months? Sleep 2 hours per day and perform better than on 8 hours? Lose more fat than a marathoner by bingeing? Indeed, and much more....

This outspoken, timely book by former Mulroney Cabinet Minister Tom McMillan indicts Stephen Harper for destroying the historic Canadian Conservative Party while prime minister and party leader, accusing him of turning a force for progressive Canadian values into an American Republican-style vehicle for right-wing ideologues. Lamenting Harper’s hyper-partisan “cult of personality” politics, McMillan argues the Conservative Party is no longer the enlightened national institution founded by ...