'Such a dazzling version of the boo phenomenon that as readers turn the pages they will be rooting for the company to survive even though they know the story ends in disaster.' The Sunday Times'boo hoo is an engrossing account of how two childhood friends persuaded some of the world's savviest investors and fashion houses - including Bernard Arnault's LVMH and the Benetton family - to fund a sports and designer clothing company to the tune of $100m.' The Guardian '[his] tale captures the hype and excitement of developing what was seen by many as a ground-breaking company with state-of-the-art technology- Along the way, it tells of endless rounds of raising finance, glamorous parties, staff clashes and bitter sparring with the press.' BBC.co.uk 'The game would be to bring boo.com to market, when it would soon be worth more than $1 billion and make its backers rich. Can all this have happened last year? It seems more like a tale from a different aeon, but the lessons it teaches are timeless.' The Spectator'

One of the hottest books on the shelves at Waterstones.' Sunday Times Style magazine'boo hoo-is 386 pages of oddly gripping text made nearly unbelievable by the amount of money that was given voluntarily to two twentysomething Swedes-the very readable book-adds lurid colour to [the] story.' The Daily Telegraph 'Reading [this] has the fascination of watching a high-speed car crash replayed in slow motion. You know what's going to happen, you can see the confident glow on the drivers' faces, but can't warn them about the curve in the road that is coming to unstick them. Schadenfreude is irresistible. And yet everyone walks away unhurt.' The Independent'With its evocative and colourful narrative, you'll quickly find yourself transported to the duo's world of ridiculous money-fuelled excess. Boo hoo offers up a truly entertaining insight into the frenzied and dizzying world of dotcommery at a time when everybody with a bright idea had a chance to make a million.' Virginstudent.com

In a world that is changing, everybody in business wants to know how to achieve and maintain success. This is the case whether your business is local, national, or global, and no matter the products or services you provide. This book sets out the impressive rise of Tiens Group, which started locally, expanded nationally, and now operates globally from its headquarters in China. The book provides not only an analysis of the factors that have contributed to the success, but also sets out examples of how these factors can be adapted to other business enterprises. In this book, you will discover deep insight into how notions such as swap and transcendence assist in business development, a sense of how Chinese businesses have developed across the world, and an understanding of how both clear focus and an ability to adapt are critical to business success.

'A fast-paced, highly readable history of one of the defining companies of our time. If you're interested in Snapchat, or just plain mystified by it, you must read this book' -- Brad Stone Would you turn down three billion dollars from Mark Zuckerberg? When he was just twenty-three years old, Evan Spiegel, the brash CEO of the social network Snapchat, stunned the world when he and his co-founders walked away from a three-billion-dollar offer from Facebook: how could an app teenagers use to text dirty photos dream of a higher valuation? Was this hubris, or genius? In How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars, Billy Gallagher takes us inside the rise of one of Silicon Valley's hottest start-ups. Snapchat began as a late-night dorm room revelation before Spiegel went on to make a name for himself as a visionary CEO worth billions, linked to celebrities like Taylor Swift and his fiancee, Miranda Kerr. A fellow Stanford undergrad and fraternity brother of the company's founding trio, Billy Gallagher has covered Snapchat from the start. His inside account offers an entertaining trip through the excess and drama of the hazy early days with a professional insight into the challenges Snapchat faces as it transitions from a playful app to one of the tech industry's preeminent public companies. In the tradition of great business narratives, How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars offers the definitive account of a company whose goal is no less than to remake the future of entertainment.

CSX Transportation Railroad Heritage is a photographic essay of this major railroad that was formed in 1980 by a merger of the Seaboard Coast Line with the Chessie System, providing a history that goes back to its beginning with the opening in 1830 of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which was the first common carrier railroad in the United States. An early predecessor railroad was the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway which introduced the figure of a sleeping kitten Chessie in 1933 that became a well-recognized advertisement for passenger service and later for freight service. Each of the railroads that were merged contributed to CSX reaching important population, energy, and manufacturing markets. The CSX Pride in Service program resulted in three special painted locomotives (shown in this book) honoring the nation's veterans, active military personnel, and first responders.

This business book-cum-political and cultural memoir, which gives a behind-the-scenes look at the revolution of one of the great retail dynasties of the world, will resonate with readers questioning our current malaise. As a fourth generation Sainsbury, Tim was the director responsible for the company's development programme from 1962 to 1974, a key period during which the radical change from counter service to self-service supermarkets took place. His retail insight and reflections, including on competition, management and remuneration, and the role of Government, will be especially relevant as we witness a new retail revolution and crisis on our high streets. Sainsbury's second calling was as a politician. This book has a foreword by Michael Heseltine, in which he writes that: 'Of particular interest to the political student will be Tim's reflections on the changes he lived through in Parliament itself. The working conditions there are unacceptable, there are too many MPs, and the increasing social pressures particularly from the internet are making it increasingly difficult to attract men and women of the calibre ministerial responsibility demands.' In Among the Supporting Cast, Sainsbury tells this story with warmth, wisdom and a self-deprecating sense of humour.

'An inspiring success story.' Baroness Rona Fairhead, CBE A RINGSIDE SEAT ON SOME OF THE BIGGEST DEALS AND BIGGEST PERSONALITIES IN BUSINESS AND GLOBAL POLITICS. They are just four letters on an electronic ticker tape, but FTSE has become a byword for money, power, influence and - crucially, after numerous financial crises - trust. How this organisation, FTSE International, brought order to the financial system over several decades, is a story of how capitalism globalized and a data revolution transformed the investment industry. It is a story of how a team of innovators seized an opportunity to build a business that today leads its field and guides the fortunes of an astonishing $16 trillion of funds. It is a story that Mark Makepeace, founding Chief Executive of FTSE International, knows better than anybody. FTSE is a ringside seat on some of the biggest deals and biggest personalities in business and global politics, chronicling how the FTSE 100 was born, behind-the-scenes rows with chief executives of some of the world's largest companies, political in-fighting, diplomatic incidents, and the ferocious dealmaking that followed over 35 years of market boom and bust. 'FTSE is a story which should inform and fascinate anyone interested in capital markets.' Sir Donald Brydon, CBE

Marvel Studios has provided some of the biggest worldwide cinematic hits of the last eight years, from Iron Man (2008) to the record-breaking The Avengers (2012), and beyond. Having announced plans to extend its production of connected texts in cinema, network and online television until at least 2028, the new aesthetic patterns brought about by Marvel's 'shared' media universe demand analysis and understanding. The Marvel Studios Phenomenon evaluates the studio's identity, as well as its status within the structures of parent Disney. In a new set of readings of key texts such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the thematics of superhero fiction and the role of fandom are considered. The authors identify milestones from Marvel's complex and controversial business history, allowing us to appraise its industrial status: from a comic publisher keen to exploit its intellectual property, to an independent producer, to successful subsidiary of a vast entertainment empire.

Winner, Governor General's Award for PoetryShortlisted, Governor General's Award for TranslationAn elegant testimony to the beautiful and the good, Serge Patrice Thibodeau's One pays homage to the vibrancy and vigor of life, backdropped against the precarious immediacy of the everyday. From the tiny trunk of opening lines taken from Paul Valery, Thibodeau unpacks a vision of human consciousness that exists in a state of singular wonder, creating a universe that is at once faithful and ever-changing like the tidal bore -- the landscape of mascaret. Thibodeau boldly blends anecdotes, pop-ups, leitmotifs, ecological awareness, and the inner world in variations on the theme of wholeness.

At the end of the 1950s the 100-year-old clothing firm Burberry was a troubled company with an uncertain future, whose new owners did not know what to do with it once they had secured it. Brian Kitson joined Burberry in 1958 expecting a temporary summer job and stayed for over twenty years. His research into the company's distinguished past, encouraged by the last Mr Burberry, began to suggest a possible direction for regeneration...Written with great verve and wit, Burberry Days tells of the author's unexpected adventures as an international travelling Burberry salesman throughout the 1960s and '70s, as well as exploring the origins of the company's emblematic trench coat and the familiar house check. The book also offers some controversial reasons why Britain, with so much to offer - from the Savile Row suit, the Jermyn Street shirt and Scottish cashmere to workforce skills and great design talent - can still only count Burberry in the premier league of international fashion houses.

London Transport was created in 1933 to coordinate the shambolic, overlapping transport systems of the capital, and for decades has striven to meet the challenges of organising London travel. Now operating as Transport for London (TfL), it continues this demanding work. In this fully illustrated volume, Michael H. C. Baker presents the complete story of the organisation from its origins, through the upheavals of the Second World War, to TfL's biggest modern project - Crossrail. Covering modes of transport including trams, trolleybuses, the iconic RT and Routemaster buses and the trains of the Underground, this is an essential guide to London's world-famous transport operator.

In 1964, amidst a climate of oppression and intimidation, arose an entity that would become a giant of Black South African empowerment – the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NAFCOC). In the 1940s, with the need for an organisation for informal black traders, the Orlando Traders Association was formed. However it was not until, after the Sharpeville uprisings, that NAFCOC was formed despite vehement objections by the government to the formation of a multi-ethnic chamber of commerce in South Africa. NAFCOC, as the voice of black business, became a vehicle for economic prosperity for a generation relegated to the sidelines of economic development by an unjust apartheid government. Black people were so marginalised that they were limited to operating subsistence-type businesses outside the mainstream of the economy. It was only in 1979 that black businesses were allowed to operate in designated black areas only, due to concerted efforts by NAFCOC. At the very core of NAFCOC ‘s existence is the creed “Rise in Faith” and this most certainly held true for those pioneering, founding fathers of NAFCOC. They held out for and held onto a vision where one day Black people would enter the mainstream of the economy of the country. This book is not just a celebration of 50 years of NAFCOC. It is also tracks the fight for political and economic freedom, long before the reality of a democratic government in 1994. It tells how NAFCOC enabled black business; how black business not only survived, but thrived against a backdrop of an unequal racist society. There are not many organisations that remain standing after 50 years – that NAFCOC has not only managed to do this, but continues to play a significant role for a new generation of black businessmen and women assures it of a continued relevance.