A family business frequently involves enough drama to fill a book - this one in fact.Pearl Sets the Pace tells the story of two landmark companies and a mighty dynasty. It begins in 1883, with the arrival of German brew master Otto Koehler in the bustling city of San Antonio, Texas. He establishes himself as one of the founders of a firm that eventually becomes the Pearl Brewery. In 1914, his murder at the hands of a disgruntled mistress becomes front-page news across the nation. Emma, his grieving (but tough-as-nails) widow, assumes leadership of the company and keeps it afloat during the dark days of Prohibition. In 1941, Margaret Koehler, one of Emma's granddaughters, marries David Earl Pace. After World War II, the young couple formulate a secret recipe for Mexican salsa. Like mad scientists, they experiment in their home kitchen and try out their concoctions on friends. From such humble beginnings grew a mighty enterprise, a real-world manifestation of the American Dream. By the early 1990s, Dave and Margaret's picante sauce was the top-selling Mexican food condiment in the world. Their descendants sold the business to the Campbell Soup Company for $1.1 billion. Through murders and mistresses, Depression and divorces, booms and busts, a passion for product sustained the Koehler-Pace clan. To make something, not simply for their neighbors to buy, but also something that would become integral to their daily lives. That became their defining principle. Yes, it defined them, but it also characterized their city. Can anyone really imagine San Antonio without beer and picante sauce? This is the story of a proud, complicated, and interwoven family and the two great enterprises they wrangled. But it is also the story of a unique Texas city and the people it breeds. It's a business story, a family story, and a story of a thriving, modern city; it is also our story.

This book, by a key founding member of the Institute of Directors (Zambia), has four important missions; firstly, to reflect on the backgroundand origins of Corporate Governance in Zambia. Secondly, to review thedevelopment on Corporate Governance practices over the last 25 years.Thirdly, to vision the way forward for Corporate Governance in the ZambianEconomy and fourthly, to serve as a ready reference resource for corporategovernance practitioners and students alike.It is hoped that such an analysis will contribute positively to the developmentand growth of sound Corporate Governance practices in both the public andthe private sectors of Zambia.

Shaw Industries, which is based in Dalton, Georgia, is the nation's leading textile manufacturer and the world's largest producer of carpets. This history focuses on the evolution of Shaw's business strategy and its adaptations to changing economic conditions. Randall L. Patton chronicles Shaw's rise to dominance by drawing on corporate records, industry data, and interviews with Shaw employees and management, including Robert E. Shaw, the only CEO the company has known in its more than thirty years.Patton situates Shaw within both the overall context of Sunbelt economic development and the unique circumstances behind the success of the tufted carpet industry in northwest Georgia. After surveying the state of the carpet industry nationwide at the end of World War II, Patton then tells the Shaw story from the boom years of 1955-1973, through the transitional decade of 1973-1982, the consolidation phase of the 1980s and early 1990s, and the 'new economy' of the mid- to late 1990s. Throughout, Patton shows, Shaw's drive has always been toward vertical integration-controlling the outside forces that could affect its bottom line. He tells, for instance, how Shaw built its own trucking fleet and became its own yarn supplier, all to the company's advantage. He also relates less successful ventures, most notably Shaw's attempt at direct retailing. The picture emerges of a company proud of its image as a steady and profitable business surviving in a competitive industry. Patton traces the history of Shaw Industries from its start as a family-owned operation through its growth into a multinational corporation that recently joined Warren Buffett's holding company, Berkshire-Hathaway. The Shaw saga has much to tell us about the continuing vitality of 'old economy' manufacturers.

Imagine a workplace where workers enjoyed a well-paid job for life, one where they could start their day with a pint of stout and a smoke, and enjoy free meals in silver service canteens and restaurants. During their breaks they could explore acres of parkland planted with hundreds of trees and thousands of shrubs. Imagine after work a place where employees could play over thirty sports, join one of the theater groups or dozens of other clubs. Imagine a place where at the end of a working life you could enjoy a company pension from a scheme you had never contributed a penny to. Imagine working in buildings designed by an internationally renowned architect whose brief was to create a building that "would last a century or two." This is no fantasy or utopian vision of work but just some aspects of the working conditions enjoyed by employees at the Guinness brewery established at Park Royal West London in the mid-1930s. In this book, Tim Strangleman tells the story of the Guinness brewery at Park Royal, showing how the history of one plant tells us a much wider story about changing attitudes and understandings about work and the organization in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Drawing on extensive oral history interviews with staff and management as well as a wealth of archival and photographic sources, the book shows how progressive ideas of workplace citizenship came into conflict with the pressure to adapt to new expectations about work and its organization. Strangleman illustrates how these changes were experienced by those on the shop floor from the 1960s through to the final closure of the plant in 2005. This book asks striking and important questions about employment and the attachment workers have to their jobs, using the story of one the UK and Ireland's most beloved brands, Guinness.

Much needed in these times when confidence in corporations has eroded, A Business Tale offers you the inspiration to make ethical choices even when it isn't easy or immediately rewarding. Wouldn't it be nice if all executives had a magical rabbit?like the one in the movie Harvey -- following them around reminding them to be ethical? In this charming fable, Aristotle (Ari, for short) is a pooka -- a mythical, invisible creature with a penchant for advising against dishonesty. Our hero, Edgar P. Benchley, has been able to see and hear Ari since childhood, and as he journeys through his professional life, constantly faced with challenging questions of good conduct, Ari helps remind him that nice guys can succeed...even in the world of business. Following the story, inside this book you'll find: real-life examples of ethical situations a 10-step action plan for ethical behavior in the workplace story formatting to impart basics of ethics in the business world A Business Tale is an easy-to-read, unforgettable "spoonful of sugar" to help companies and individuals digest the sometimes tart lessons of practical morality in the workplace.

In an age where even the best products are quickly imitated, businesses must constantly find new ways to outpace competitors. Successful companies differentiate themselves not just with superior products, but also by how they behave toward their customers at every touchpoint: service, product development, marketing, branding, bids and proposals, presentations, negotiations, and more. Behavioral Differentiation is emerging as the ""final frontier"" in competitive strategy, and "Winning Behavior" shows how leading companies use it to exceed expectations and outperform competitors. This eye-opening book offers case histories and examples from companies like GE, Volvo, EMC, Ritz-Carlton, Wal-Mart, and Harley-Davidson, plus interviews with executives like George Zimmer (Men's Wearhouse), Colleen Barrett (Southwest Airlines), and Gerry Roche (Heidrick & Struggles). In today's ultracompetitive business landscape, product quality and competitive pricing are prerequisites for staying afloat. Winning Behavior reveals the secrets the best companies use -- and any business can use -- to stay at the pinnacle of success in their industry.

Introduced at the 1876 Centennial Exposition and powered by an historic advertising campaign, Hires Root Beer-launched 10 years before Coca-Cola-blazed the trail for development of the American soft drink industry. Its inventor, Charles Elmer Hires, has been described as "a tycoon with the soul of a chemist." In addition to creating root beer, Hires, a devoted family man and a pillar of the Quaker community, became a leading importer of botanical commodities, an authority on the vanilla bean. Starting from scratch, he also built one of the world's largest condensed milk companies. Charles E. Hires and the Drink that Wowed a Nation chronicles the humble origin and meteoric business success of this extraordinary entrepreneur. Author Bill Double uses published interviews, correspondence, newspaper reports, magazine articles, financial data, and a small family archive to tell this story of native ingenuity. Here, the rough-hewn capitalism of the gilded age, the evolution of the neighborhood drugstore, the rise of advertising in creating mass markets, and the emerging temperance movement all come together in a biography that, well, fizzes with entrepreneurial spirit.

"Remember the Cola Wars, with Coke and Pepsi battling it out year after year for supremacy in the soft drink market? Or what about the Burger Wars, the legendary slugfests between McDonald's and Burger King? Then of course, there were the Sports Drink Wars. If you blinked, you might have missed them, because Gatorade has swiftly and decisively fended off every would-be rival. Although a few other brands hold slim market shares, the fact is that Gatorade single-handedly created the sports drink industry 40 years ago and has absolutely ruled it ever since. But Gatorade is more than just a triumph of branding. First, it's a trusted product that has been scientifically proven to do what it claims to do. Second, Gatorade is an enthralling story, brought to life in bright color and sharp detail in First in Thirst. Author Darren Rovell, a skilled, objective, and passionate journalist, chronicles every astonishing milestone of the company's history. With unprecedented access to the inventors, the marketers, the analysts and observers, and key company figures past and present, Rovell recounts the sweat-drenched University of Florida football practices, the first (unpalatable) prototypes, and the commercial and financial interest that quickly took hold following the drink's first on-field successes. Then came the advertising, sponsorships, product placements (many of them fortuitous), and finally the two milestones that cemented Gatorade's iconic status once and for all -- the ubiquitous Gatorade bath and the Michael Jordan ""Be Like Mike"" endorsement deal. With refreshing candor, First in Thirst also offers an inside look at the negotiations, battles, lawsuits, mergers and acquisitions, product strategies, lucky breaks, and even the missteps (there have not been many) that have attended Gatorade's reign as the 800-pound gorilla of the sports-drink scene. Rovell places the reader inside labs and brainstorming sessions, at board meetings and ad shoots, on the sidelines and in the dugouts, even in the winner's circle at NASCAR events -- where Gatorade manages maximum exposure even at tracks whose official sponsors include chief rival POWERade. The book identifies the nine Gatorade Rules, business principles that have helped Gatorade become one of the most dominant brands ever. By adhering to these principles, businesses in other industries may achieve greater brand recognition and market share. Long before America knew what ""deep-down body thirst"" was, a team of university scientists had already invented something to quench it. First in Thirst is the story of the product and the company, and of America's fascination with the one and only Gatorade."