Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/19/2012
ISBN-13: 9780670023776
ISBN-10: 0670023779

Suddenly extremely wealthy after the sale of his start-up, entrepreneur Gerald Chertavian realized he could do good by investing in the country's future. Realizing that a huge number of young adults in the U.S. were unemployed and had only a high school diploma, in 2000 Chertavian created a year-long program offering low-income young adults training, mentorship, and internships and jobs with leading companies. He called it Year Up, and in this uplifting memoir, he traces the progress of a Year Up class from admissions through graduation and beyond to illuminate the challenges the students faced as well as the triumphs they achieved. "A standout," says Kirkus Reviews; read it to see how dedicated individuals can make a difference.

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Publisher: Crown Publishers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/10/2012
ISBN-13: 9780307716071
ISBN-10: 0307716074

"Get ready to have your blood boil," says Library Journal of this fascinating investigation into an audacious hedge fund fraud and its manager's faked suicide (an attempt to avoid imprisonment). Sam Israel was at one time hugely successful, thanks to an astounding network of insider trading information and a loose grasp of ethics; unfortunately, he was drawn to ever shadier tactics to keep profits up. In the end, he bet his final millions on a secret market society of clandestine bankers and shady European nobles...which may or may not have been real. Things didn't go well for Israel, who is now imprisoned, but his story "makes for an exhilarating page-turner" (Publishers Weekly).

Publisher: Portfolio
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/14/2012
ISBN-13: 9781591845300
ISBN-10: 1591845300

Written by a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, Do Nothing! outlines an approach to management that instructs business leaders to become more effective by encouraging potential, allowing high performers to work without interference, and facilitating without micromanaging. It's not really true that you're doing nothing -- rather, you're allowing your employees to do more productive work while you focus on the big picture, and on leading. Nobody likes a micromanager, but if you, like many others, find it hard to delegate or let others do their jobs without constant check-ins, you may need to read this book.

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Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/19/2012
ISBN-13: 9780230341227
ISBN-10: 0230341225

Not sure who to trust in this unstable financial market? Reading this book might give you some ideas, though it's also likely to alarm. In a sobering evaluation of how unsustainable debt levels and corruption are compromising the world's standard investments, author John Talbott offers some suggestions (invest in hard assets like property and gold over stocks and bonds) and a vision of the near future of economics. He also evaluates such global dynamics as the low-wage threats of China and India, the legitimacy of gold investing, and the false security of diversification.

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Publisher: Penguin Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/26/2006
ISBN-13: 9780143038788
ISBN-10: 0143038788

To create a balanced evaluation of the ways in which Wal-Mart, the world's largest retail company and employer, affects everyday life on national and global levels, award-winning journalist (and senior editor at Fast Company) Charles Fishman compiled statistics and personal stories from employees, suppliers, and even founders. Curious about how the Wal-Mart obsession with low prices affects the economy? No better place to start than here: the Denver Post applauded this book for its "evenhanded treatment" and depth of research, BusinessWeek calls it "well-written and insightful," and it was shortlisted for the Financial Times' Business Book of the Year for 2006.

Publisher: Hill and Wang
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/30/2011
ISBN-13: 9780809095438
ISBN-10: 0809095432

Selected by The Wall Street Journal as a best nonfiction book of 2011, this compelling history of the grocery industry traces the rise of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, which became the first retailer worldwide to sell more than $1 billion of merchandise in a single year. Run by effective leaders in its early days (and the largest retailer in the U.S until 1965), A&P became hugely successful through strategies like price-cutting (putting mom & pop shops out of business), but it started a downward trend in the 1950s as other supermarkets rose to prominence. Offering insight into the pivotal ways in which the company changed how Americans shop and eat, this is a "well-conceived, lively history with obvious contemporary relevance" (Kirkus Reviews).

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Publisher: Beacon Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/04/2007
ISBN-13: 9780807035016
ISBN-10: 0807035017

Well-researched and supported by frightening statistics, Big-Box Swindle takes a look at how giant chain stores have affected communities across the U.S. Formerly the chair of the American Independent Business Alliance and now a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Stacy Mitchell argues that these chains, aided by government policies and subsidies, increase pollution, shrink the middle class, create urban sprawl -- and don't even offer the lowest prices. She also explains various ways that communities can promote independent retail options; if you have an interest in shutting out a proposed "big-box" near you, you'll want to check this out.

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Publisher: Berrett-Koehler
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/15/2006
ISBN-13: 9781576753866
ISBN-10: 1576753867

Arguing that local businesses can not only compete with but outperform mega-stores and chains, author Michael Shuman outlines a range of practical strategies for fighting globalization through profit- and community-minded small business practices. Written with business owners, community leaders, and consumers in mind, The Small-Mart Revolution will provide helpful information for those wanting to improve local economies and stimulate job growth at home. Easy to read, fully foot-noted, and at times even humorous, this is a great book for the community-minded.

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Publisher: Walker & Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/15/2009
ISBN-13: 9780802716057
ISBN-10: 0802716059

This tribute to the small and independent retail shops of the U.S. evaluates how a community's businesses foster a sense of neighborhood identity. Written by a business journalist raised in a family that owned a small butcher shop, the account traces a cross-country search into the current state of independent retailing. Divided into three sections (the story of his family's store, interviews with independent retailers across the country, and the role of these stores in the community), this uplifting story is "about real America," as 90% of all U.S. business are family-owned (Booklist).

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