"By now, we all know the mythology of the digital revolution: it improved efficiency, eliminated waste, and fostered a boom in innovation. But as business reporter David Sax shows in this clear-sighted, entertaining book, not all innovations are written in source code. In fact, businesses that once looked outdated are now springing with new life. Behold the Revenge of Analog. Sax has found story after story of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even big corporations who've found a market selling not apps but real, tangible things. As e-books are supposedly remaking reading, independent bookstores have sprouted up across the country. As music supposedly migrates to the cloud, vinyl record sales have grown more than ten times over the past decade, generating more than half a billion dollars in 2015 alone. Even the offices of Silicon Valley icons like Google and Facebook increasingly rely on analog technologies like pen and paper for their business. Sax's work reveals not just an underreported trend in business, but a more fundamental truth about how humans shop, interact, and even think. Blending psychology and observant wit with old-fashioned reportage, Sax shows that humans need to work, sell, and live in the real world--not on a screen"--

In 1983, Michael S. Dell, then an incoming freshman at the University of Texas at Austin, drove away from his parents' Houston home in a white BMW he'd bought selling subscriptions to his hometown newspaper. In the backseat were three personal computers. Today, he is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dell Computer Corporation, an $18 billion company, the second-largest manufacturer and marketer of computers in the world. Founded on a deceptively simple premise--to deliver high-performance computer systems directly to the end user--Dell Computer is the envy of its competition, constantly growing at five times the industry rate, and a perennial darling of Wall Street: its stock is up more than 36,000 percent this decade, and more than 200 percent in the last year. In Direct From Dell, Michael Dell himself tells the incredible story of Dell Computer's successful rise, beginning in his college dorm room with $1,000 in capital. In these pages, you'll see the formation of a great visionary--and a great company. You'll meet the young Dell who, at the tender age of eight, had already begun looking "to eliminate unnecessary steps" and who, as a numbers-loving adolescent, was inspired by a newfound fascination with computers to save his money to buy a coveted Apple II--only to promptly take it apart. You'll encounter a young visionary who, upon witnessing the inefficiencies of an exploding industry, challenged conventional wisdom and set out to do nothing less than beat IBM at its own game. In so doing, Dell forever changed the way things "had always been done" in the computer industry. You'll also see the birth of a Dell hallmark--the direct model--which, in its ability to reach the customer directly, eliminated not only a substantial middleman markup but also the possibility of costly excess inventory, setting the stage for other extraordinary achievements. In an industry notorious for its unreliable service, Dell utilized its direct customer relationships to pioneer the concept of customer "support"--and didn't rest until the caliber of its service was rivaled only by the quality of its products and its speed of delivery. But the story of Dell Computer is no fairy tale. Marked by uncharacteristically rapid growth, the company was faced with challenges that could have threatened its very existence. From forays into retail to under- (and over-) developed product lines, Dell learned some hard lessons along the way--and emerged stronger as a result. The strategies born of those times--unrivaled speed to market; superior customer service; a fierce commitment to producing constantly high-quality custom-made systems--heralded what has perhaps been the company's crowning achievement: an early exploitation of the Internet. One of the first companies to actually make money online, Dell is now selling more than $12 million worth of systems per day over www.dell.com. Not just for CEOs or those in high tech, the strategies revealed in Direct From Dell are invaluable to managers in a broad cross section of industries. From starting a successful business to pioneering computer sales and service over the Internet, Dell shares his perspectives on: Why it's infinitely better for any business starting out to have too little capital, rather than too much How studying your customers--not your competition--will give you a greater competitive edge Why it can be life-threatening to your company to pursue too many good ideas--or to grow too fast Why it's essential to run a P&L on every area of your business Why your people prose a greater threat to the health of your business than your competition does How you can exploit your competition's weakness by exposing its greatest strength How integrating your business virtually can make the difference between being quick--and being dead Revealing nothing less than a new model for doing business in the information age, Direct From Dell is both an extraordinary business success story and a manifesto for revolutionizing any industry.

When a heart attack claimed Gert Boyle's husband in 1970, the forty-six-year-old housewife and mother of three found herself at the helm of Columbia Sportswear, a small outerwear manufacturer in Portland, Oregon, that was struggling financially. With no business experience whatsoever, Boyle was faced with the challenge of running Columbia, which had been founded in 1937 by her father — a Jewish immigrant who had fled Hitler's Germany. Boyle and her son Tim persevered, turning a company that in 1970 had forty employees and less than 800,000 in annual sales into the leading seller of skiwear in the United States, with more than 2000 employees and over a billion in annual sales. Along the way, thanks in part to a creative marketing campaign that billed her as "one tough mother," Boyle established herself as an industry icon, and the first woman ever inducted into the International Sporting Goods Hall of Fame. One Tough Mother presents an honest and often irreverent account of Boyle's journey from a childhood in Nazi Germany to incredible success in America. She offers insights into succeeding in business and in life, and shares many of the advertisements and strategies that have made her so recognizable.

"The first of Aletta Jacobs's major works available in English, Memories introduces American readers to a remarkable woman-a key Dutch feminist who herself broke new ground, and who worked alongside world-renowned leaders in the progressive movements of the early twentieth century. Aletta Jacobs learned to lvoe the medical profession from her physician father, who took her on his rounds. Despite a sex-segregated education system, she became the nations's first woman to earn a medical degree. Jacobs's experiences as a doctor led her to pioneering health care reforms for prostitutes and saleswomen, as well as campaigns for the acceptance and availability of reliable birth control. Aletta Jacob's career included equally remarkable achievements in the international woman's suffrage and peace movements, where she worked closely with U.S. activists Jane Addams and Carrie Chapman Catt. Jacobs and Catt made frequent lecture tours together, culminating in a tour of Africa and Asia that combined avid sightseeing with speaking engagements in every country they visited. In Memories, Jacobs recounts all of these experiences, and spiritedly imparts her opinions-such as her disdain for the customs that restricted women to theater balcony seats and chastised them for walking alone at night. By turns witty, impassioned, and poignant, Memories brings to life a time of enormous changes for women-and one of the women who helped bring about the changes."--Book desc. via amazon.ca.

There was a time not very long ago when "going out" was only for the rich and the reckless. At the turn of the century, "going out" became part of everyday life as vaudeville halls, photograph parlors, penny arcades, nickelodeons, nightclubs, dance halls, world's fair midways, amusement parks, ballparks, and movie palaces opened their doors to the people of the city. The new amusement centers welcomed women, men, and children, native-born and immigrant, rich, poor, and middling. Only African Americans were excluded or segregated in the audience, though they were overrepresented on stage. Going Out chronicles the twentieth-century entertainment revolution that changed forever the ways we live, work, and play. In a matter of decades, a new public world of amusements was created where ethnic, class, and neighborhood differences were subordinated to the common pursuit of a good time. Clerks and bankers, sales girls and society ladies "turkey trotted" to ragtime in nightclubs and dance halls; "shot the chute" and clutched one another in "barrels of love"; visited "Darkest Africa" on the world's fair midways; and sat together in the dark watching pictures move on a screen. In Going Out, we meet the colorful characters who invented show business: Thomas Alva Edison, who was astonished when his phonograph made money playing music (he had designed it to take business dictation); Benjamin Franklin Keith, the circus grifter who opened a dime museum in Boston in the 1880s and within a decade owned the world's largest vaudeville theater circuit; Adolph Zukor and Marcus Loew, the New York furriers who made millions in the early picture-show business; and the dozens of small-time show businessmen who rode the rails with their "shows" in their trunks. And we hear the stories of the early black performers and their struggles to maintain their dignity and livelihood while audiences demanded their public humiliation. Going Out is a history of twentieth-century show business and of the new American public that assembled in the city's wondrous pleasure palaces, parks, and theaters. The book concludes with an account of the fall or relocation of this entertainment world, as central city amusement parks, movie palaces, and ballparks were uprooted and transported to the suburbs in the decades following World War II.

What impact has Russia's chosen path of reform had on the development of law after the collapse of the communist regime? This collection of essays examines how Russia's distinctive traditions of law?and lawlessness?are shaping the current struggle for economic reform in the country. Nine renowned scholars, chosen from specialties in history, politi

A fully illustrated, stylish look back at the story behind a Canadian design icon. For a decade, in the 1960s, the Clairtone Sound Corporation captured the spirit of the times: sophisticated, cosmopolitan, liberated. From its modern oiled-walnut and teak consoles to its minimalist logo and cheeky marketing materials, Clairtone produced a body of design work that is still today contemporary. Founded in 1958 by two Canadian upstarts, Peter Munk and David Gilmour, the fledgling manufacturer of hi-fi and TV consoles quickly became known for its iconic designs and masterful advertising campaigns. Its Project G stereo, winner of the silver medal at the 1964 Milan Triennale, with its space-age styling, and costing as much as a small car, was the epitome of bachelor pad cool. Famously, Hugh Hefner owned a Project G. So did Frank Sinatra. In 1967, suggesting how deeply it had come to be identified with popular culture, a Project G appeared in The Graduate alongside Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. Richly illustrated with more than two hundred images, The Art of Clairtone is a candid and intimate look at the company's skyrocketing success and sensational collapse. Through the personal and private recollections of those who knew Clairtone best, from its founders to its designers, engineers, and salesmen, and with comments from Karim Rashid, Douglas Coupland, Tyler Brule, and Bruce Mau, this elegant book captures the influence and spirit of an iconoclastic company that seemed to represent all the promise of Canada.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... (6) Columns for Discount on Purchases and Discount on Notes on the same side of the Cash Book; (c) Columns for Discount on Sales and Cash Sales on the debit side of the Cash Book; (d) Departmental columns in the Sales Book and in the Purchase Book. Controlling Accounts.--The addition of special columns in books of original entry makes possible the keeping of Controlling Accounts. The most common examples of such accounts are Accounts Receivable account and Accounts Payable account. These summary accounts, respectively, displace individual customers' and creditors' accounts in the Ledger. The customers' accounts are then segregated in another book called the Sales Ledger or Customers' Ledger, while the creditors' accounts are kept in the Purchase or Creditors' Ledger. The original Ledger, now much reduced in size, is called the General Ledger. The Trial Balance now refers to the accounts in the General Ledger. It is evident that the task of taking a Trial Balance is greatly simplified because so many fewer accounts are involved. A Schedule of Accounts Receivable is then prepared, consisting of the balances found in the Sales Ledger, and its total must agree with the balance of the Accounts Receivable account shown in the Trial Balance. A similar Schedule of Accounts Payable, made up of all the balances in the Purchase Ledger, is prepared, and it must agree with the balance of the Accounts Payable account of the General Ledger." The Balance Sheet.--In the more elementary part of the text, the student learned how to prepare a Statement of Assets and Liabilities for the purpose of disclosing the net capital of an enterprise. In the present chapter he was shown how to prepare a similar statement, the Balance Sheet. For all practical...

Donald Klopfer and Bennett Cerf had been partners in Random House for seventeen years, but Donald decided that he had to become a part of an even greater endeavor—the defeat of Nazi Germany. Not long after Pearl Harbor, Donald, who was then forty years old, took a leave from Random House and joined the United States Army Air Forces. He served for two and a half years, finally becoming an intelligence major in a B-24 group in England. Donald and Bennett wrote to each other regularly all during that period. Bennett sent Donald long newsy letters about the book business—authors, sales, publishing gossip—as well as about what was happening in New York. Donald reacted in his wise, serene way to Bennett’s letters, and conveyed news of what was going on in the war, though sometimes censorship took its toll. This is nostalgia with substance, and because these letters were never intended to be read by anyone else, they reveal, in a convincing and wonderful way, just how special these two men were and how that specialness was reflected in the company they founded.

Set in Vienna in the early part of the twentieth century, Zipper and his Father is a compelling and wonderfully atmospheric portrayal of a childhood friend, Arnold Zipper, and his father, as seen through the eyes of a young boy. The Zipper family welcome the arrival of their son's friend and the boy is fascinated by their cosy suburban life. Zipper Senior, a violin-maker and travelling salesman, is determined that they will attain the success that was denied to him. However, as the two friends mature their lives take different paths' - the army, university, early career choices and a disastrous marriage to an aspiring actress all take their toll - and each has a very different story to tell. From the outskirts of Vienna to the Hollywood hills, Zipper and his Father charts the ambitions of a whole generation who, during period of erratic social change, found themselves dreaming of what might have been.

SPANNING SIX GENERATIONS and three continents, My Name, a Living Memory is a fictionalized saga of author Giorgio van Straten’s family from the Napoleonic era through World War II. The story begins in Rotterdam in 1811, when Hartog son of Alexander — father, cucumber salesman, and Dutch Jew — is forced by Napoleonic edict to choose a last name. He chooses Straaten, the Dutch word for “street.” The name presages a journey through history that flings Hartog’s descendants as far afield as San Francisco, London, Odessa, Sao Paolo, and Tbilisi. They witness the Gold Rush, the Russian Revolution, the Stalinist purges, and, finally, the Holocaust. Some are uprooted by business interests, including the author’s grandfather, who lost one of the A’s in his surname en route. As the political climate grows increasingly perilous for Jews throughout Europe, several are forced to flee for their lives, and many fail to return from Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Bergen-Belsen. Historical fiction of a very personal sort, van Straten weaves his relatives’ stories together, much as an art restorer reconstructs the missing portions of a fresco, guided by the evidence that remains. A gold watch, a few photographs, crumpled documents and letters, family lore; these are the artifacts from which lives are re-created. In the end, the story of van Straten’s family can be read as a testament to the rich and varied history and culture of Jews in Europe and the Americas.

Tells of the dramatic, often hilarious story of Arthur Miller working with the Beijing People's Theatre to produce his play "Death of a Salesman" from first read-through to opening night.