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.

Romance novels have attracted considerable attention since their mass market debut in 1939, yet seldom has the industry itself been analyzed. Founded in 1949, Harlequin quickly gained market domination with their contemporary romances. Other publishers countered with historical romances, leading to the rise of ""bodice-ripper"" romances in the 1970s. The liberation of the romance novel's content during the 1980s brought a vitality to the market that was dubbed a revolution, but the real romance revolution began in the 1990s with developments in the mainstream publishing industry and continues today. This book traces the history and evolution of the romance industry, covering successful (and not so successful) trends and describing changes in romance publishing that paved the way for the many popular subgenres flooding the market in the 21st century.

Commerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant-adventurers who built the modern world

It was an era when monopoly trading companies were the unofficial agents of European expansion, controlling vast numbers of people and huge tracts of land, and taking on governmental and military functions. They managed their territories as business interests, treating their subjects as employees, customers, or competitors. The leaders of these trading enterprises exercised virtually unaccountable, dictatorial political power over millions of people.

The merchant kings of the Age of Heroic Commerce were a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life men who, for a couple hundred years, expanded their far-flung commercial enterprises over a sizable portion of the world. They include Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the violent and autocratic pioneer of the Dutch East India Company; Peter Stuyvesant, the one-legged governor of the Dutch West India Company, whose narrow-minded approach lost Manhattan to the British; Robert Clive, who rose from company clerk to become head of the British East India Company and one of the wealthiest men in Britain; Alexandr Baranov of the Russian American Company; Cecil Rhodes, founder of De Beers and Rhodesia; and George Simpson, the "Little Emperor" of the Hudson's Bay Company, who was chauffeured about his vast fur domain in a giant canoe, exhorting his voyageurs to paddle harder so he could set speed records."Merchant Kings" looks at the rise and fall of company rule in the centuries before colonialism, when nations belatedly assumed responsibility for their commercial enterprises. A blend of biography, corporate history, and colonial history, this book offers a panoramic, new perspective on the enormous cultural, political, and social legacies, good and bad, of this first period of unfettered globalization.

In 1867, less than three years after the Civil War left the city in ruins, Hungarian Jewish immigrant Morris Rich opened a small dry goods store on what is now Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta. Over time, his brothers Emanuel and Daniel joined the business; within a century, it became a retailing dynasty. Join historian Jeff Clemmons as he traces Rich's 137-year history. For the first time, learn the true stories behind Penelope Penn, Fashionata, The Great Tree, the Pink Pig, Rich's famous coconut cake and much more, including how events at the downtown Atlanta store helped John F. Kennedy become America's thirty-fifth president. With an eye for accuracy and exacting detail, Clemmons recounts the complete history of this treasured southern institution.

Robert Greifeld was CEO of NASDAQ for over a decade, during which time it was named Company of the Year, ranked one of the best performing companies in the U.S., included in Fortune's annual list of 100 fastest growing companies and shares of the company's stock rose a whopping 800%.

In Market Mover, Bob looks at the headline-making events that took place while he was at the helm from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis of 2008, to Facebook's disastrous IPO and the Bernie Madoff scandal. He takes you exclusively behind the headlines using them as jumping off points for lessons that can be applied to any business, including jumpstarting change, working with technology, finding the best people, and adapting to globalization.

Henriques of "The New York Times" has written the definitive book on Madoff and his scheme, drawing on unprecedented access and more than 100 interviews, including Madoff's first interviews for publication since his arrest.

Double Standards travels 25 years back to explore the story of a bank, with roots in the Middle East, that rose to prominence and became the fastest-growing bank in the world. It was called the Bank of Credit & Commerce International, known as BCCI, and became the 4th largest bank in the world by 1991. It became the bridge between the Third World and the West and at its height was bailing out governments in developing countries, like the IMF or World Bank. It was also a favourite port of call for some more notorious clientele, like the CIA, who used the bank to facilitate its covert operations overseas. The Bank of England and US authorities shut the BCCI down amidst allegations of fraud in July 1991, making over 14,000 employees redundant and leaving over 1 million customers out of pocket. Double Standards revisits the actions taken by the Bank of England and the regulatory authorities with regards to BCCI and carries out an academic analysis to compare its treatment with the major banking scandals following the global financial meltdown in 2008. The malpractice that BCCI was accused of was on par with a parking violation compared to the actions of the bigger banks of today, yet the fines and penalties to these banks are not as severe as the punishment meted out to BCCI. Why was the bank shut and, more importantly, who benefitted from its closure? This informative analysis of BCCI's rise and fall will appeal to those with an interest in finance and banking law.

The Hilton brand is arguably one of the most successful and iconic brands in the hospitality industry in all time. The Story of Hilton Hotels: 'Little Americas' provides both an informative historical analysis of the development of the company, as well an engaging narrative about Conrad Hilton himself, illustrating how he fulfilled the typical American dream of rising from rags to riches and constructing a multinational hotel empire. The Story of Hilton Hotels: 'Little Americas' also engages with the wider historical contexts of politics and culture. It analyses some of the key shifts in the area of hotel management including standardisation, asset-light models and delivering the customer experience. Using original data and the first hand academic research the author can use this iconic hotel brand as a lens through which to analyse some of the key theoretical concepts and practices that are used in the industry today. A vital resource for all students (both postgraduate and undergraduate) on hospitality, marketing, business history and business management courses as well as executive courses delivered to hospitality professionals.