Since its invention in Italy in the fourteenth century, marine insurance has provided merchants with capital protection in times of crisis, thus oiling the gears of trade and commerce. With a focus on customs, laws, and organisational structures, this book reveals the Italian origins of marine insurance, and tracks the spread of underwriting practices and institutions in Europe and America through the early modern era. With contributions from eleven leading researchers from seven countries, the book examines key institutional developments in the history of marine insurance. The authors discuss its invention in Italy, and its evolution from private to corporate structures, assessing the causes and impacts of various state interventions. Amsterdam and Antwerp are analysed as one-time key centres of underwriting, as is the emergence and maturity of marine insurance in London. The book evaluates an experiment in corporate underwriting in Cadiz, and the development of insurance institutions in the United States, before applying the metrics of underwriting to discuss commerce raiding in the Atlantic up to the nineteenth century.

A colourful history of advertising. The process of producing goods and services is relatively easy to recognize as socially beneficial. But television ads? Telemarketers? Jingles? Junk mail? It is popular to view these commercial activities as inherently wasteful or manipulative, marginally informative or entertaining, at best. The most vociferous critics marshal economic and sociological data to argue that advertising dilutes culture and moral values, encourages conspicuous consumption, defrauds the public, and promotes dangerous products and behaviours. In Selling the Dream, John Hood takes the provocative stand that advertising images and sales pitches are actually part of the goods and services themselves, delivering an essential component of the consumer's experience. As such, they are inextricably linked to the basic tenets of the free-market system, and, in the boldest of terms, Hood argues that commercial communication is morally consistent with the principles of a democratic society, including freedom of choice, competition, and innovation. Tracing the history of advertising from Ancient Roman times to the present, through the first American newspaper ad in 1704, P.T. the modern consumer society, Hood offers a colourful account of advertising in its cultural context. Moreover, he addresses such controversial issues as the promotion of harmful and immoral products (such as tobacco and alcohol), marketing to children, the role of advertising in service industries such as health care and education, and the impact of the Internet and other new media on the conduct of commerce. In the process, he offers a compelling perspective on advertising and its essential role in business, communication, and popular culture. Advertising is a ubiquitous part of our consumer culture. It draws from business, economics, politics, and history to present a colourful picture of advertising in context and argues that advertising is an essential ingredient of competition, innovation, and free-market economic growth. Deals with controversial issues, such as advertising immoral products and advertising to children.

The Pyramid of Lies by international financial journalist Duncan Mavin, is the true story of Lex Greensill, the Australian farmer who became a hi-flying billionaire banker before crashing back down to earth, exposing a tangled network of flawed financiers, politicians and industrialists. Lex Greensill had a simple, billion-dollar idea - democratising supply chain finance. Suppliers want to get their invoices paid as soon as possible. Companies want to hold off as long as they can. Greensill bridged the two, it's mundane, boring even, but he saw an opportunity to profit. However, margins are thin and Lex, ever the risk taker, made lucrative loans with other people's money: to a Russian cargo plane linked to Vladmir Putin, to former Special Forces who ran a private army, and crucially to companies that were fraudulent or had no revenue. When the company finally collapsed it exposed the revolving door between Westminster and big business and how David Cameron was allowed to lobby ministers for cash that would save Greensill's doomed business. Instead, Credit Suisse and Japan's SoftBank are nursing billions of dollars in losses, a German bank is under criminal investigation, and thousands of jobs are at risk. What Bad Blood did for Silicon Valley and The Smartest Guys in the Room did for Wall Street, The Pyramid of Lies will do for the world of shadow banking and supply chain finance. It is a world populated with some of the most outlandish characters in business and some of the most outrageous examples of excess. It is a story of greed and ambition that shines a light on the murky intersection between politics and business, where lavish fortunes can be made and lost.

"New York Times" Bestseller,

With a New Afterword
"Schlosser has a flair for dazzling scene-setting and an arsenal of startling facts . . . "Fast Food Nation" points the way but, to resurrect an old fast food slogan, the choice is yours."--"Los Angeles Times"
In 2001, "Fast Food Nation" was published to critical acclaim and became an international bestseller. Eric Schlosser's expose revealed how the fast food industry has altered the landscape of America, widened the gap between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and transformed food production throughout the world. The book changed the way millions of people think about what they eat and helped to launch today's food movement.
In a new afterword for this edition, Schlosser discusses the growing interest in local and organic food, the continued exploitation of poor workers by the food industry, and the need to ensure that every American has access to good, healthy, affordable food. "Fast Food Nation" is as relevant today as it was a decade ago. The book inspires readers to look beneath the surface of our food system, consider its impact on society and, most of all, think for themselves.
"As disturbing as it is irresistible . . . Exhaustively researched, frighteningly convincing . . . channeling the spirits of Upton Sinclair and Rachel Carson."--"San Francisco Chronicle"
"Schlosser shows how the fast food industry conquered both appetite and landscape."--"The New Yorker"
Eric Schlosser is a contributing editor for the "Atlantic "and the author of "Fast Food Nation," "Reefer Madness," and "Chew on This" (with Charles Wilson).

This volume is the result of a symposium in which 15 distinguished scholars, business leaders, lawyers, social scientists, philosophers, and theologians considered management and corporations in 1985.

Take a critical view of the institutions that affect our everyday lives with this extended essay. The most important of these is the modern-day corporation, which continues to resist social control despite an ability to adapt to the environment like no other entity in human history.

Corporations continue to explode with power, and religious, educational, and governmental organizations are looking to them as examples. An increasing number of entities are learning how to conduct themselves by looking at their corporate counterparts, and, as a result, they're no longer fulfilling their true purposes.

Author Francis X. Healy Jr. examines the implications of these disturbing developments. Discover why institutions continue to miss expectations, why society suffers as a result of corporate models, and how money and power interact in problematic ways.

The pursuit of money and power is stifling the true purposes of institutions with honorable objectives. Many groups that once carried at least a facade of being above it all are now stuck in the moneypower continuum; if something doesn't change soon, the consequences will be devastating.

Learn about one of the most impactful distilleries in American history in this comprehensive tale Buffalo, Barrels, & Bourbon tells the fascinating tale of the Buffalo Trace Distillery, from the time of the earliest explorations of Kentucky to the present day. Author and award-winning spirits expert F. Paul Pacult takes readers on a journey through history that covers the American Revolutionary War, U.S Civil War, two World Wars, Prohibition, and the Great Depression. Buffalo, Barrels, & Bourbon covers the pedigree and provenance of the Buffalo Trace Distillery: The larger-than-life personalities that over a century and a half made Buffalo Trace Distillery what it is today Detailed accounts on how many of the distillery's award-winning and world-famous brands were created The impact of world events, including multiple depressions, weather-related events, and major conflicts, on the distillery Belonging on the shelf of anyone with an interest in American spirits and history, Buffalo, Barrels, & Bourbon is a compelling must-read.

For Heineken, 'rising Africa' is already a reality: the profits it extracts there are almost 50 per cent above the global average, and beer costs more in some African countries than it does in Europe. Heineken claims its presence boosts economic development on the continent. But is this true? Investigative journalist Olivier van Beemen has spent years seeking the answer, and his conclusion is damning: Heineken has hardly benefited Africa at all. On the contrary, there are some shocking skeletons in its African closet: tax avoidance, sexual abuse, links to genocide and other human rights violations, high-level corruption, crushing competition from indigenous brewers, and collaboration with dictators and pitiless anti-government rebels. Heineken in Africa caused a political and media furore on publication in The Netherlands, and was debated in their Parliament. It is an unmissable expose of the havoc wreaked by a global giant seeking profit in the developing world.

Learning From Upheaval The best seat in the house to understand a centuryOf challenge and transformation.Ideas distilled from substantial investments in human Performance improvement.The story has the all-encompassing sweep of the full twentieth century. Distance learning pioneer Jamison Handy and then Bill Sandy were interacting with America's legendary industrial giants on the topic most relevant to survival and success---the performance of human beings. There is no better vantage point to capture the drama of change. Throughout the turmoil, Sandy's specialty of performance improvement kept him focused not just on what was happening but why, and most important, what could be done about it. Sophisticated concepts of personal and organizational growth are served up as stories. Bill Sandy's success depended on his ability to understand issues, conceptualize solutions, and convey those concepts in a way that others could easily grasp. The author, who has lived through all the fads, extracts major principles from the turbulence and offers wisdom a man can do when he reflects on a lifetime spent riding the waves of change. One core principle is to maintain a sense of humor. Irreverence gives spice to this saga of personal and organizational transformation. www.LearningFromUpheaval.com

First published in 1981, this edited collection reviews the operations of state-owned enterprises, examining the actual performance of such organisations in the advanced industrialised countries. The authors consider the regularities and characteristics of state-owned enterprises, in particular the persistent efforts of managers to increase their autonomy and escape from the oversight of government agencies and the public. Chapters consider principles of finance and decision-making in these organisations and provide a truly international perspective with case studies in Italy, France and Britain. This is a timely reissue in context of the current economic climate, which will be of great value to students and academics with an interest in the nationalisation of companies, international business and the relationship between governments and managers.

In June 2017, Travis Kalanick, the CEO of Uber, was ousted in a boardroom coup that capped a brutal year for the transportation giant. Uber had catapulted to the top of the tech world, yet for many came to symbolise everything wrong with Silicon Valley. In the tradition of Brad Stone's Everything Store and John Carreyrou's Bad Blood, award-winning investigative reporter Mike Isaac's Super Pumped delivers a gripping account of Uber's rapid rise, its pitched battles with taxi unions and drivers, the company's toxic internal culture and the bare-knuckle tactics it devised to overcome obstacles in its quest for dominance. Based on hundreds of interviews with current and former Uber employees, along with previously unpublished documents, Super Pumped is a page-turning story of ambition and deception, obscene wealth and bad behaviour, that explores how blistering technological and financial innovation culminated in one of the most catastrophic twelve-month periods in American corporate history.

The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone Microsoft's CEO tells the inside story of the company's continuing transformation, while tracing his own journey from a childhood in India to leading some of the most significant changes of the digital era. LONGLISTED FOR THE FT & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD Satya Nadella grew up in India, studied in the US and went on to become Microsoft's third CEO after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. In Hit Refresh he offers a unique view of the transformation happening inside one of the world's most iconic tech companies, and the arrival of the most exciting and disruptive wave of technology humankind has experienced - including artificial intelligence, mixed reality, and quantum computing. Nadella examines how people, organisations and societies can and must transform - 'hit refresh' - in their persistent quest for new energy, new ideas, and continued relevance and renewal. Yet at its core, this book is about humans, and how one of our essential qualities - empathy - will become ever more valuable in a world where technological advancement will alter the status quo as never before.

For the first time the complete financial history of Berkshire Hathaway is available under one cover in chronological format. Beginning at the origins of the predecessor companies in the textile industry, the reader can examine the development of the modern-day conglomerate year-by-year and decade-by-decade, watching as the struggling textile company morphs into what it has become today. This comprehensive analysis distils over 10,000 pages of research material, including Buffett's Chairman's letters, Berkshire Hathaway annual reports and SEC filings, annual meeting transcripts, subsidiary financials, and more. The analysis of each year is supplemented with Buffett's own commentary where relevant, and examines all important acquisitions, investments, and other capital allocation decisions. The appendices contain balance sheets, income statements, statements of cash flows, and key ratios dating back to the 1930s, materials brought together for the first time. The structure of the book allows the new student to follow the logic, reasoning, and capital allocation decisions made by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger from the very beginning. Existing Berkshire shareholders and long-time observers will find new information and refreshing analysis, and a convenient reference guide to the decades of financial moves that built the modern-day respected enterprise that is Berkshire Hathaway.

Jowett Cars were built in Bradford, from 1906 to 1954. All pre-war cars up to 1935 were powered by a twin-cylinder horizontally opposed 7hp engine. In 1935 a new four-cylinder horizontally opposed engine was introduced with a 10hp rating running alongside the original twin-cylinder model which had been increased to an 8hp rating. Little changed during this pre-war period, many of the models were made in very small numbers, and sadly, there are no survivors today. The Jowett brothers experimented in the mid-1930's with a new in-line power unit which did not go into production. The post-war period saw massive changes in the Jowett company, with both Jowett brothers retiring by the end of the war. The first all-new model was the Javelin saloon, launched in 1947 and the Jupiter sportscar in 1950. By 1951 there should have led to a completely new range of cars, vans, pick-up and estate cars, known as the Bradford CD range. There were plans for a racing Jupiter known as the R1 and to re-vamp the Jupiter for road use known as the R4. Sadly, none of these models materialised and Jowett's history could have been so different had fate been kinder to them.