By examining "the real thing" ingredient by ingredient, this brilliant history shows how Coke used a strategy of outsourcing and leveraged free public resources, market muscle, and lobbying power to build a global empire on the sale of sugary water. Coke became a giant in a world of abundance but is now embattled in a world of scarcity, its products straining global resources and fueling crises in public health.

Few video game companies have a history as long and impressive as Sega Enterprises. Long before it took the home video game console market by storm, Sega was already an arcade powerhouse that successfully transferred its experience making coin-operated amusement machines into the video game boom of the late `70s and early `80s. The combined efforts of Sega's American, European, and Japanese branches revolutionized the arcade industry in ways that are still widely felt today. Thanks to their work, Sega has continued to innovate and lead the industry in design and quality for more than 40 years, producing some of the most famous arcade titles in history. Based on interviews with former Western and Japanese developers, as well as hundreds of English and Japanese documents, this book follows the rise of Sega in the video game industry, from its electromechanical machines of the mid-1960s to the acquisition of Gremlin Industries and the rise of its world-famous AM Studios, and finalizing with its merger with Sammy Corporation in 2003. 62 of Sega's most popular and ground-breaking games are explored in detail.

In just a decade and half Jack Ma, a man who rose from humble beginnings and started his career as an English teacher, founded and built Alibaba into the second largest Internet company in the world. The company’s $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the world’s largest, valuing the company more than Facebook or Coca Cola. Alibaba today runs the e-commerce services that hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers depend on every day, providing employment and income for tens of millions more. A Rockefeller of his age, Jack has become an icon for the country’s booming private sector, and as the face of the new, consumerist China is courted by heads of state and CEOs from around the world.

Granted unprecedented access to a wealth of new material including exclusive interviews, Clark draws on his own first-hand experience of key figures integral to Alibaba’s rise to create an authoritative, compelling narrative account of how Alibaba and its charismatic creator have transformed the way that Chinese exercise their new found economic freedom, inspiring entrepreneurs around the world and infuriating others, turning the tables on the Silicon Valley giants who have tried to stand in his way.

Duncan explores vital questions about the company’s past, present, and future: How, from such unremarkable origins, did Jack Ma build Alibaba? What explains his relentless drive and his ability to outsmart his competitors? With over 80% of China’s e-commerce market, how long can the company hope to maintain its dominance? As the company sets its sights on the country’s financial and media markets, are there limits to Alibaba’s ambitions, or will the Chinese government act to curtail them? And as it set up shop from LA and San Francisco to Seattle, how will Alibaba grow its presence and investments in the US and other international markets?

Clark tells Alibaba’s tale within the wider story of China’s economic explosion—the rise of the private sector and the expansion of Internet usage—that haver powered the country’s rise to become the world’s second largest economy and largest Internet population, twice the size of the United States. He also explores the political and social context for these momentous changes. An expert insider with unrivaled connections, Clark has a deep understanding of Chinese business mindset. He illuminates an unlikely corporate titan as never before, and examines the key role his company has played in transforming China while increasing its power and presence worldwide.

A fast-growing social media marketing company, TechCo encourages all of its employees to speak up. By promoting open dialogue across the corporate hierarchy, the firm has fostered a uniquely engaged workforce and an enviable capacity for change. Yet the path hasn't always been easy. TechCo has confronted a number of challenges, and its experience reveals the essential elements of bureaucracy that remain even when a firm sets out to discard them. Through it all, TechCo serves as a powerful new model for how firms can navigate today's rapidly changing technological and cultural climate. Catherine J. Turco was embedded within TechCo for ten months. The Conversational Firm is her ethnographic analysis of what worked at the company and what didn't. She offers multiple lessons for anyone curious about the effect of social media on the corporate environment and adds depth to debates over the new generation of employees reared on social media: Millennials who carry their technological habits and expectations into the workplace. Marshaling insights from cultural and economic sociology, organizational theory, economics, technology studies, and anthropology, The Conversational Firm offers a nuanced analysis of corporate communication, control, and culture in the social media age.

Consumer co-operatives provide a different approach to organizing business through their ideals of member ownership and democratic practice. Every co-operative member has an equal vote regardless of his or her own personal capital investment. The co-operative movement can also be an important force in promoting development and self-sufficiency in poorer areas, particularly in non-industrialised countries. This book explores in depth the fortunes of the Berkeley Consumer Co-operative, which became the largest consumer co-operative in the United States with 116,000 members in 1984 and viewed nationally as a leader in innovative retail practices and a champion of consumer rights. The Berkeley Consumer Co-operative is promoted by both supporters and opponents of the co-operative business model as a significant example of what can go wrong with the co-operatives. This book will provide the first in depth analysis of the history of the Berkeley Co-operative using its substantial but little used archives and oral histories to explore what the Berkeley experience means for the co-operative business model. The specific chapters relating to Berkeley will be organised around particular themes to highlight the issues relating to the co-operative business model and the local context of Berkeley. The themes relate to developments in Berkeley and the Bay Area in terms of the economy, politics and the retail environment; the management of the Berkeley co-operative, looking at governance, financial management and strategic decisions; relationship of management with members and employees; and finally, the relationship of the Berkeley Co-operative with the community. The core message of the book is that it is not inevitable that consumer co-operatives fail, but that the story of Berkeley story can provide insights that can strengthen the co-operative business model and minimise failures on the scale of Berkeley occurring in the future.

The Avon Lady acquired iconic status in twentieth century American culture. This first history of Avon tells the story of a direct sales company that was both a giant in its industry and a kitchen-table entrepreneurial venture. With their distinctive greeting at the homes across the country-Ding Dong! Avon Calling!-sales ladies brought door-to-door sales of makeup, perfume, and other products to American women beginning in 1886. Working for the company enabled women to earn money on the side and even become financially independent in a respectable profession while selling Avon's wares to friends, family, and neighborhood networks. Ding Dong! Avon Calling! is the story of women and entrepreneurship, and of an innovative corporation largely managed by men that empowered women to exploit networks of other women and their community for profit. Founded in the late nineteenth century, Avon grew into a massive international direct sales company in which millions of "ambassadors of beauty" sat in their customers' living rooms with a sample case, catalogue, and a conversational sales pitch. Avon was unique in American business history for its reliance on women as representatives, promising them not just sales positions, but a chance to have a business of their own. Being an Avon Lady avoided the stigma that was often attached to middle-class women's work outside the home and enabled women to maintain the delicate balance of work and family. Drawing for the first time on company records she helped acquire for archives, Katina Manko illuminates Avon's inner workings, uncovers the lives of its representatives, and shows how women slowly rose into the company's middle and upper management. Avon called itself "The Company for Women" and championed its high flyers, but its higher echelons remained dominated by men well into the 1990s. Avon is more than perfumes and toiletries, but a brand built on women knocking on doors and chatting up neighbors. It thrived for more than a century through the deceptively simple technique of women directly selling beauty to women at home.

The fascinating behind the scenes story of the brash Aussie technology start up that changed the way a whole generation around the world does their shopping. Millennials love it. Amateur investors made millions out of it, and its founders became billionaires. But professional investors steered clear, regarding it as over-valued. In a few short years, the Australian startup Afterpay has put a rocket under consumer finance and birthed a global industry. It pioneered the four-payments model that allows customers to bypass credit cards for online shopping and budgeting, with the cost borne by the retailer. Just five years after it was founded, Afterpay had changed the way a generation went shopping, how brands from big banks to fashion labels win customers, and how institutions value companies. Buy Now, Pay Later recounts the dramatic behind-the-scenes story of the founding and rise of Afterpay. It reveals the network of business and personal relationships that enabled the company to finance its speedy growth and the maneuevring that enabled it to escape regulation for years, as well as the near-death experiences and rising concern that it is getting young people hooked on debt. Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting and interviews with key figures involved in their rollercoaster ride, this is the Afterpay story told in full.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE WEEK BY THE NEW YORK POST ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIOBOOK A from-the-trenches view of New York Daily News and New York Post runners and photographers as they stop at nothing to break the story and squash their tabloid arch-rivals. When author Mike Jaccarino was offered a job at the Daily News in 2006, he was asked a single question: "Kid, what are you going to do to help us beat the Post?" That was the year things went sideways at the News, when the New York Post surpassed its nemesis in circulation for the first time in the history of both papers. Tasked with one job-crush the Post-Jaccarino here provides the behind-the-scenes story of how the runners and shooters on both sides would do anything and everything to get the scoop before their opponents. The New York Daily News and the New York Post have long been the Hatfields and McCoys of American media: two warring tabloids in a town big enough for only one of them. As digital news rendered print journalism obsolete, the fight to survive in NYC became an epic, Darwinian battle. In America's Last Great Newspaper War, Jaccarino exposes the untold story of this tabloid death match of such ferocity and obsession its like has not occurred since Pulitzer- Hearst. Told through the eyes of hungry "runners" (field reporters) and "shooters" (photographers) who would employ phony police lights to overcome traffic, Mike Jaccarino's memoir unmasks the do-whatever-it-takes era of reporting-where the ends justified the means and nothing was off-limits. His no-holds-barred account describes sneaking into hospitals, months-long stakeouts, infiltrating John Gotti's crypt, bidding wars for scoops, high-speed car chases with Hillary Clinton, O.J. Simpson, and the baby mama of a philandering congressman-all to get that coveted front-page story. Today, few runners and shooters remain on the street. Their age and exploits are as bygone as the News-Post war and American newspapers, generally. Where armies once battled, often no one is covering the story at all. Funding for this book was provided by: Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund

How chartered company-states spearheaded European expansion and helped create the world's first genuinely global order From Spanish conquistadors to British colonialists, the prevailing story of European empire-building has focused on the rival ambitions of competing states. But as Outsourcing Empire shows, from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, company-states-not sovereign states-drove European expansion, building the world's first genuinely international system. Company-states were hybrid ventures: pioneering multinational trading firms run for profit, with founding charters that granted them sovereign powers of war, peace, and rule. Those like the English and Dutch East India Companies carved out corporate empires in Asia, while other company-states pushed forward European expansion through North America, Africa, and the South Pacific. In this comparative exploration, Andrew Phillips and J. C. Sharman explain the rise and fall of company-states, why some succeeded while others failed, and their role as vanguards of capitalism and imperialism. In dealing with alien civilizations to the East and West, Europeans relied primarily on company-states to mediate geographic and cultural distances in trade and diplomacy. Emerging as improvised solutions to bridge the gap between European rulers' expansive geopolitical ambitions and their scarce means, company-states succeeded best where they could balance the twin imperatives of power and profit. Yet as European states strengthened from the late eighteenth century onward, and a sense of separate public and private spheres grew, the company-states lost their usefulness and legitimacy. Bringing a fresh understanding to the ways cross-cultural relations were handled across the oceans, Outsourcing Empire examines the significance of company-states as key progenitors of the globalized world.

An eminent early preservationist, John Crawley was able to amass an enviable photographic archive of steam traction engines and road rollers in their working days, of which this Aveling & Porter selection formed just a part. Organiser of over eighty steam rallies, John saved up to thirty steam traction engines for preservation from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, at a time when they were considered not much more than worthless scrap. Indeed, he became the first owner of no fewer than twenty-two of them. Utilising this incredible and unique collection of images, most of which are previously unpublished, Colin Tyson tells the story of this important manufacturer and iconic British brand.

An ambitious and shocking expose of America's hidden empire in Liberia, run by the storied Firestone corporation, and its long shadow In the early 1920s, Americans owned 80 percent of the world's automobiles and consumed 75 percent of the world's rubber. But only one percent of the world's rubber grew under the U.S. flag, creating a bottleneck that hampered the nation's explosive economic expansion. To solve its conundrum, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company turned to a tiny West African nation, Liberia, founded in 1847 as a free Black republic. Empire of Rubber tells a sweeping story of capitalism, racial exploitation, and environmental devastation, as Firestone transformed Liberia into America's rubber empire. Historian and filmmaker Gregg Mitman scoured remote archives to unearth a history of promises unfulfilled for the vast numbers of Liberians who toiled on rubber plantations built on taken land. Mitman reveals a history of racial segregation and medical experimentation that reflected Jim Crow America-on African soil. As Firestone reaped fortunes, wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a few elites, fostering widespread inequalities that fed unrest, rebellions and, eventually, civil war. A riveting narrative of ecology and disease, of commerce and science, and of racial politics and political maneuvering, Empire of Rubber uncovers the hidden story of a corporate empire whose tentacles reach into the present.

NO LOGO was an international bestseller and "a movement bible" ("The New York Times"). Naomi Klein's second book, "The Shock Doctrine," was hailed as a "master narrative of our time," and has over a million copies in print worldwide. In the last decade, "No Logo "has become an international phenomenon and a cultural manifesto for the critics of unfettered capitalism worldwide. As America faces a second economic depression, Klein's analysis of our corporate and branded world is as timely and powerful as ever. Equal parts cultural analysis, political manifesto, mall-rat memoir, and journalistic expose, "No Logo" is the first book to put the new resistance into pop-historical and clear economic perspective. Naomi Klein tells a story of rebellion and self-determination in the face of our new branded world. Naomi Klein, born in Montreal in 1970, is an award-winning journalist. She writes a weekly column in "The Globe and Mail, "Canada's national newspaper, and is also a frequent columnist for the British "Guardian." For the past five years, Klein has traveled throughout North America, Asia, and Europe, tracking the rise of anti-corporate activism. She often serves as a media commentator and has guest-lectured at Harvard, Yale, and New York University. She lives in Toronto. For more information, please visit her website at www.nologo.org.
"No Logo "employs journalistic savvy and personal testament to detail the insidious practices and far-reaching effects of corporate marketing--and the powerful potential of a growing activist sect that is already changing the course of the 21st century. First published before the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, this is an infuriating, inspiring, and altogether pioneering work of cultural criticism that investigates money, marketing, and the anti-corporate movement.
As global corporations compete for the hearts and wallets of consumers who not only buy their products but willingly advertise them from head to toe--witness today's schoolbooks, superstores, sporting arenas, and brand-name synergy--a new generation has begun to battle consumerism with its own best weapons. In this provocative, well-written study, a front-line report on that battle, we learn how the Nike swoosh has changed from an athletic status-symbol to a metaphor for sweatshop labor, how teenaged McDonald's workers are risking their jobs to join the Teamsters, and how "culture jammers" utilize spray paint, computer-hacking acumen, and anti-propagandist wordplay to undercut the slogans and meanings of billboard ads (as in "Joe Chemo" for "Joe Camel").
As Klein notes in her Introduction: "This book is not another account of the power of the select group of corporate Goliaths that have gathered to form our de facto global government. Rather, it is an attempt to analyze and document the forces opposing corporate rule, and to lay out the particular set of cultural and economic conditions that made the emergence of that opposition inevitable." Thus "No Logo "will challenge and enlighten students of sociology, economics, popular culture, international affairs, and marketing.
"This book is not another account of the power of the select group of corporate Goliaths that have gathered to form our de facto global government. Rather, it is an attempt to analyze and document the forces opposing corporate rule, and to lay out the particular set of cultural and economic conditions that made the emergence of that opposition inevitable."--Naomi Klein, from her Introduction
""No Logo "has been a pedagogical godsend. I used it to illustrate contemporary applications of complex cultural theories in an introductory social science sequence. It worked so beautifully, word about the book spread across campus, and other students were begging to read it in their sections of the course."--Bruce Novak, Division of Social Sciences, The University of Chicago
"A complete, user-friendly handbook on the negative effects that '90s uberbrand marketing has had on culture, work, and consumer choice . . . An encyclopedic compilation of the decade's fringe and mainstream anti-corporate actions and mind-sets."--"The Village Voice"
"Energetic and optimistic, Ms. Klein incarnates [her] generation's invention of the North American left."--"The New York Times"
"The "Das Kapital" of the growing anti-corporate movement . . . A riveting, conscientious piece of journalism and a strident call to arms. Packed with enlightening statistics and extraordinary anecdotal evidence, "No Logo "is fluent, undogmatically alive to its contradictions and omission and positively seethes with intelligent anger."--"The Observer" (London)
""No Logo "should be read by anyone who thinks that the Seattle demonstrations were an aberration."--"The Economist"
"A brilliant account of how Nike, Starbucks, McDonalds etc. branded the industralised world, and how the most exciting strand of radical politics is now bound up with resisting their kulturkampf . . . Fantastic and inspiring."--"The Times Literary Supplement"
"Klein is a sharp cultural critic and a flawless storyteller. Her analysis is thorough and thoroughly engaging."--Newsweek.com
""No Logo" is an attractive sprawl of a book describing a vast confederacy of activist groups with a common interest in reining in the power of lawyering, marketing, and advertising to manipulate our desires."--"The Boston Globe "
"Klein is a gifted writer; her paragraphs can be as seductive as the ad campaigns she dissects."--"The New York Times Book Review"
"Just when you thought multi-nationals and crazed consumerism were too big to fight, along comes Naomi Klein with facts, spirit, and news of successful fighters already out there. "No Logo" is an invigorating call to arms for everybody who wants to save money, justice, or the universe."--Gloria Steinem
"Naomi Klein's trenchant book is the perfect introduction to and explanation of those stunning events [in Seattle] . . . This book is the very essence of cool."--"The Toronto Globe and Mail "
"To understand how branding drives the global market, you couldn't ask for a better guide than Naomi Klein."--"Toronto Star"
"A dense, fact-filled publication that makes plain the jargon spouted by all who put profit before basic human needs . . . [A work of] far-reaching vision and clear presentation. A well-conceived primer on the machinations of the modern consumer world, "No Logo" is required reading for anyone who thinks people should not be treated like machines."--"Eye Weekly"
""No Logo" finally puts in perspective what the newest generation of fed-up consumers and anti-corporate activists have been trying to verbalize for the past 10 years."--"Ottawa Express"
"Athletic, expansive, and an antidote to sloppy thinking . . . It's impossible not to notice the prescience of her argument."--"Sunday Herald" (U.K.)
"Generation-X intellectual Naomi Klein could become the next Douglas Coupland with her "No Logo. "She anticipates a revolt against corporate power by younger people seeking brand-free space. Even if the revolt is not in the works yet, her tart writing might inspire one."--"Report on Business"
""No Logo" has been a word-of-mouth sensation, giving voice to a

Millions have sat under the "big top," watching as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but few know the captivating stories behind the men whose creativity, ingenuity, and determination created one of our country's most beloved pastimes. In Battle for the Big Top, New York Times-bestselling author Les Standiford brings to life a remarkable era when three circus kings-James Bailey, P. T. Barnum, and John Ringling-all vied for control of the vastly profitable and influential American Circus. Ultimately, the rivalry of these three men resulted in the creation of an institution that would surpass all intentions and, for 147 years, hold a nation spellbound. Filled with details of their ever-evolving showmanship, business acumen, and personal magnetism, this Ragtime-like narrative will delight and enchant circus-lovers and anyone fascinated by the American experience.

A motorcycle should be simple: one engine, two wheels. But, back in 2009, Fred Jourden and Hugo Jezegabel couldn't find any that fitted their specifications - so they decided to make their own. Leaving their 9-5 jobs, they set up Blitz Motorcycles in Paris, creating a garage where they would build only the most beautiful and unique motorcycles, all hand-designed, custom-built and tailored to the rider. This was the start of an adventure that would take them from strength to strength, and from garage to desert to mountain. Blitz Motorcycles: A Vision of Custom Motorcycles presents first the vision and then the motorcycles in one strikingly illustrated volume.

Founders of the phenomenally successful publishing company Lonely Planet, Tony and Maureen Wheeler have produced travel guides to just about every corner of the globe.
Lonely Planet Publications was born in 1973 when the Wheelers self-published a quirky travel guide, "Across Asia on the Cheap." This was quickly followed by what soon became the backpackers' bible, "South-East Asia on a Shoestring." Going boldly where no other travel publisher had ventured, they catered to a new generation of independent, budget-conscious travelers long before the advent of mass tourism.
"Unlikely Destinations: The Lonely Planet Story" is a unique mix of autobiography, business history and travel book. It traces Tony and Maureen Wheeler's personal story as well as the often bumpy evolution of their travel guide business into the world's largest independent travel publishing company.
Not surprisingly, after thirty years in the business the Wheelers have an unrivalled set of anecdotes which they share in "Unlikely Destinations: The Lonely Planet Story." They have been hassled by customs, cheated by accountants, let down by writers, banned in Malawi, berated for their Burma guide and had books pirated in Vietnam. Tony has been gored by a cow in Benares, declared dead around the world in an assortment of gruesome and greatly exaggerated accounts and their company has been accused of the "Lonely Planetization" of the world.
Through it all, from the heady days of discovery in the '70s to the rocky patch after the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Wheelers' passion for the planet and traveling certainly hasn't diminished, and comes shining through in this enthralling travelogue. But above all, their memoir reveals the spirit of adventure that has made them, according to the "New York Daily News, " "the specialists in guiding weird folks to weird places."

How has the firm of Swaine Adeney Brigg, one of Britain's oldest and most prestigious manufacturers of leather goods and umbrellas, survived for so long? What are the ingredients of its lasting success? This book charts how the company has kept pace with the shifting needs and demands of the marketplace, seizing trading opportunities, for the most part successfully, along the way. Swaine & Adeney began as makers of driving, riding, and hunting whips, becoming whip-makers to the royal family. With the coming of the railways, horse-drawn transport was greatly reduced and demand for whips shifted away from driving accessories to hunting and fashionable riding accessories. As the twentieth century dawned Swaine & Adeney survived the advent of the motor car by applying their leatherworking skills also to the making of luggage. Other equestrian accessory companies were absorbed: J. Kohler & Son, makers of coaching and hunting horns, and G. & J. Zair Ltd, whip-makers of Birmingham. In the dark days of 1943, Thomas Brigg & Sons, London's leading umbrella and walking-stick manufacturers joined forces with Swaine & Adeney, bringing with them their own long and impressive history of craftsmanship and royal patronage. Together, as Swaine Adeney Brigg, they emerged into the post-war era with renewed vigour. The hatters Herbert Johnson and the luggage-making arm of Papworth Industries were later added to the group. Neville Chamberlain, Margot Fonteyn, Augustus John, and Stirling Moss have been among the proud owners of the group's stylish products, and Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau both wore Herbert Johnson hats.

Decline can be avoided.

Decline can be detected.

Decline can be reversed.

Amidst the desolate landscape of fallen great companies, Jim Collins began to wonder: How "do" the mighty fall? Can decline be detected early and avoided? How far can a company fall before the path toward doom becomes inevitable and unshakable? How can companies reverse course?

In "How the Mighty Fall," Collins confronts these questions, offering leaders the well-founded hope that they can learn how to stave off decline and, if they find themselves falling, reverse their course. Collins' research project--more than four years in duration--uncovered five step-wise stages of decline:

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More

Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

By understanding these stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom.

Great companies can stumble, badly, and recover.

Every institution, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline. There is no law of nature that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top. Anyone can fall and most eventually do. But, as Collins' research emphasizes, some companies do indeed recover--in some cases, coming back even stronger--"even after having crashed into the depths of Stage 4."

Decline, it turns out, is largely self-inflicted, and the path to recovery lies largely within our own hands. We are not imprisoned by our circumstances, our history, or even our staggering defeats along the way. As long as we never get entirely knocked out of the game, hope always remains. The mighty can fall, but they can often rise again.

Diamond Warriors in Colonial Namibia enters into unchartered scholarly territory of illegal diamond smuggling at the largest diamond mining company in colonial Namibia-De Beers' Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa (CDM). It details the underground activities of the natives (migrant workers) employed by the CDM and how these illicit activities accounted for rapid development in Owamboland.

Beyond this account, the book takes on the deterministic 'natural resource curse' theory that equates natural resource endowments to a curse resulting in underdevelopment and sometimes conflict. It is argued and proven herein, from a decolonial standpoint, that such an approach is an oversimplification of the political economy of natural resources in Africa in general and Namibia in particular.

The text also provides a contextual account of the contract labour system and details the symbiotic relationship between CDM and the colonial state before highlighting the remaining unanswered questions and areas of further research.

Fashion studies is a burgeoning field that often highlights the contributions of genius designers and high-profile brands with little reference to what goes on behind the scenes in the supply chain. This book pulls back the curtain on the global fashion system of the past 200 years to examine the relationship between the textile mills of Yorkshire - the firms that provided the entire Western world with warm wool fabrics - and their customers. It is a microhistory of a single firm, Abraham Moon and Sons Ltd, that sheds light on important macro questions about British industry, government policies on international trade, the role of multi-generational family firms and the place of design and innovation in business strategy. It is the first book to connect Yorkshire tweeds to the fashion system. Written in lively, accessible prose, this book will appeal to anyone who works in fashion or who wears fashion. There is nothing like it - and it will raise the bar for historical studies of global fashion. Here you'll find intriguing stories about a tweed theft from the Leeds Coloured Cloth Hall, debates on tariffs and global trade, the battle against synthetic fibres and the reinvention of British tweeds around heritage marketing. You won't be bored. -- .

London merchant bankers emerged during the 1820s in the wake of financial turmoil caused by the wars of American Independence, the Napoleonic campaigns and the Anglo-American war of 1812. Though the majority of merchant bankers remained cautious in their affairs, Huth & Co established an impressive global network of trade and lending, dealing with over 6,000 correspondents in more than seventy countries. Based on archival research, this comparative study provides a new chronology of early nineteenth-century commercial and financial expansion. Huth & Co. were truly market-makers and key intermediaries of commodities and capital flows in the international economy. This is an important example of a firm shaping globalisation well before the transport and communication revolution of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. But rather than a case study, this is a comparative study concerned with the commercial and financial activities of the leading merchant-bankers of the period This book will be of great interest to business and economic historians interested in the nature of the early decades of the first globalization.

A historical look at the early evolution of global trade and how this led to the creation and dominance of the European business corporation Before the seventeenth century, trade across Eurasia was mostly conducted in short segments along the Silk Route and Indian Ocean. Business was organized in family firms, merchant networks, and state-owned enterprises, and dominated by Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traders. However, around 1600 the first two joint-stock corporations, the English and Dutch East India Companies, were established. Going the Distance tells the story of overland and maritime trade without Europeans, of European Cape Route trade without corporations, and of how new, large-scale, and impersonal organizations arose in Europe to control long-distance trade for more than three centuries. Ron Harris shows that by 1700, the scene and methods for global trade had dramatically changed: Dutch and English merchants shepherded goods directly from China and India to northwestern Europe. To understand this transformation, Harris compares the organizational forms used in four major regions: China, India, the Middle East, and Western Europe. The English and Dutch were the last to leap into Eurasian trade, and they innovated in order to compete. They raised capital from passive investors through impersonal stock markets and their joint-stock corporations deployed more capital, ships, and agents to deliver goods from their origins to consumers. Going the Distance explores the history behind a cornerstone of the modern economy, and how this organizational revolution contributed to the formation of global trade and the creation of the business corporation as a key factor in Europe's economic rise.

A fast-growing social media marketing company, TechCo encourages all of its employees to speak up. By promoting open dialogue across the corporate hierarchy, the firm has fostered a uniquely engaged workforce and an enviable capacity for change. Yet the path hasn't always been easy. TechCo has confronted a number of challenges, and its experience reveals the essential elements of bureaucracy that remain even when a firm sets out to discard them. Through it all, TechCo serves as a powerful new model for how firms can navigate today's rapidly changing technological and cultural climate. Catherine J. Turco was embedded within TechCo for ten months. The Conversational Firm is her ethnographic analysis of what worked at the company and what didn't. She offers multiple lessons for anyone curious about the effect of social media on the corporate environment and adds depth to debates over the new generation of employees reared on social media: Millennials who carry their technological habits and expectations into the workplace. Marshaling insights from cultural and economic sociology, organizational theory, economics, technology studies, and anthropology, The Conversational Firm offers a nuanced analysis of corporate communication, control, and culture in the social media age.