Arte Vetraria Muranese (AVEM) emerged from the liquidation of Successori Andrea Rioda in November 1931. The new factory placed a very personal accent on contemporary artistic glass production on Murano: while designs prior to the Second World War were generally still the responsibility of master glassblowers themselves, after the war designers and freelance artists increasingly determined production. Giulio Radi began experimenting in 1940, obtaining the company's signature chromatic effects by superimposing mould-blown layers of glass, often opaque and transparent in alternation, and inlaying them with gold and silver foil. This latest volume of Marc Heireman's ongoing Murano manufactory books features over 800 design drawings, numerous archive images and new photos of AVEM masterpieces, making this anthology of the company's history indispensable for all Murano glass lovers.

This study analyzes the influence of big business on the economic, political, and social structure of twentieth-century America. The author examines the development of a mass production and consumption economy and argues that the corporation became a key institutional force in the United States.

*Longlisted for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History, 2022* A spectacular new biography of the great designer, entrepreneur, abolitionist and beacon of the Industrial Revolution, from acclaimed historian and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tristram Hunt Josiah Wedgwood, perhaps the greatest English potter who ever lived, epitomized the best of his age. From his kilns and workshops in Stoke-on-Trent, he revolutionized the production of ceramics in Georgian Britain by marrying technology with design, manufacturing efficiency and retail flair. He transformed the luxury markets not only of London, Liverpool, Bath and Dublin but of America and the world, and helping to usher in a mass consumer society. Tristram Hunt calls him 'the Steve Jobs of the eighteenth century'. But Wedgwood was radical in his mind and politics as well as in his designs. He campaigned for free trade and religious toleration, read pioneering papers to the Royal Society and was a member of the celebrated Lunar Society of Birmingham. Most significantly, he created the ceramic 'Emancipation Badge', depicting a slave in chains and inscribed 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother?' that became the symbol of the abolitionist movement. Tristram Hunt's hugely enjoyable new biography, strongly based on Wedgwood's notebooks, letters and the words of his contemporaries, brilliantly captures the energy and originality of Wedgwood and his extraordinary contribution to the transformation of eighteenth-century Britain.

The disciplines of strategic intelligence at the governmental level and competitive business intelligence constitute accepted methods of decision-supporting to prevent mistakes and strategic surprise. This research discovered that many researchers in the intelligence field feel that intelligence methodology in both contexts has reached a "glass ceiling." Thus far, research has focused separately on national intelligence and intelligence in business, without any attempt to benchmark from one field to the other. This book shows that it is possible to use experience gained in the business field to improve intelligence practices in national security, and vice versa through mutual learning. The book's main innovation is its proposition that mutual learning can be employed in the context of a model distinguishes between concentrated and diffused surprises to provide a breakthrough in the intelligence field, thereby facilitating better prediction of the surprise development. We Never Expected That: A Comparative Study of Failures in National and Business Intelligence focuses on a comparison between how states, through their intelligence organizations, cope with strategic surprises and how business organizations deal with unexpected movement in their field. Based on this comparison, the author proposes a new model which can better address the challenge of avoiding strategic surprises. This book can contribute significantly to the study of intelligence, which will become more influential in the coming years.

'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.

After the Berlin Wall tells the inside story of an international financial institution, the European Bank for Development and Reconstruction (EBRD), created in the aftermath of communism to help the countries of central and eastern Europe transition towards open market-oriented democratic economies. The first volume of a history in two parts, After the Berlin Wall charts the EBRD's life from a fledgling high-risk, start-up investing in former socialist countries from 1991 to become an established member of the international financial community, which (as of April 2020) operates in almost 40 countries across three continents. This volume describes the multilateral negotiations that created this cosmopolitan institution with a 'European character' and the emergence of the EBRD's unique business model: a focus on the private sector and a mission to deliver development impact with sustainable financial returns. The author recounts the challenges that 'transition' countries faced in moving from a defunct to a better economic system and maps the EBRD's response to critical events, from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, to the safe confinement of the Chernobyl disaster site, the debt default in Russia and the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008.

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

A compelling argument for a new set of attitudes toward human capital to sharpen our competitive edge and to fuel the creative sparks in any environment This timely book challenges conventional business wisdom about competition, secrecy, motivation, and creativity. Orly Lobel, an internationally acclaimed expert in the law and economics of human capital, warns that a set of counterproductive mentalities are stifling innovation in many regions and companies. Lobel asks how innovators, entrepreneurs, research teams, and every one of us who experiences the occasional spark of creativity can triumph in today's innovation ecosystems. In every industry and every market, battles to recruit, retain, train, energize, and motivate the best people are fierce. From Facebook to Google, Coca-Cola to Intel, JetBlue to Mattel, Lobel uncovers specific factors that produce winners or losers in the talent wars. Combining original behavioral experiments with sharp observations of contemporary battles over ideas, secrets, and skill, Lobel identifies motivation, relationships, and mobility as the most important ingredients for successful innovation. Yet many companies embrace a control mentality-relying more on patents, copyright, branding, espionage, and aggressive restrictions of their own talent and secrets than on creative energies that are waiting to be unleashed. Lobel presents a set of positive changes in corporate strategies, industry norms, regional policies, and national laws that will incentivize talent flow, creativity, and growth. This vital and exciting reading reveals why everyone wins when talent is set free.

A shocking expose of Volkswagen's fraud by the New York Times reporter who covered the scandal. Updated with a New Afterword by the Author. When news of Volkswagen's clean diesel fraud first broke in September 2015, it sent shockwaves around the world. Overnight, the company long associated with quality, reliability and trust became a universal symbol of greed and deception. Consumers were outraged, investors panicked, the company embarrassed and facing bankruptcy. As lawsuits and criminal investigations piled up, by August 2016 VW had settled with American regulators and car-owners for $15 billion, with additional fines and claims still looming. In Faster, Higher, Farther, Jack Ewing rips the lid off the scandal. He describes VW's rise from "the people's car" during the Nazi era to one of Germany's most prestigious and important global brands, touted for being "green." He paints vivid portraits of Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech and chief executive Martin Winterkorn, arguing that their unremitting ambition drove employees, working feverishly in pursuit of impossible sales targets, to illegal methods. With unprecedented access to key players and a ringside seat during the course of the legal proceedings, Faster, Higher, Farther reveals how the succeed-at-all-costs culture prevalent in modern boardrooms led to one of corporate history's farthest-reaching cases of fraud-with potentially devastating consequences. As the future of one of the world's biggest companies remains uncertain, this is the extraordinary story of Volkswagen's downfall.

Land Rover Freelander - The Complete Story recounts the history of the Land Rover Freelander, and its popular successor, the Freelander 2. This new book covers the original Freelander, from its design and development to its launch and reception in 1997. In 2006 , the innovative Freelander 2 was launched, with its pioneering technology in fuel efficiency. Also covered are the Freelander variants from across the world, and its use in UK law enforcement. This is an indispensable guide to the history of both generations of Freelander.

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.

This casebook tells the story of Xiecheng, a hugely successful hotel chain in China, with a clear focus on the forming and creation of its powerful and successful management team. Who they are, and the part they played in Xiecheng's impressive growth and performance. The reader will benefit from a clear insight into how a company expands and ideas to help overcome challenges and pitfalls along the way. This book is an intimate portrayal of how the idea for a business is conceived one evening over a meal and then goes on to become a success story in modern China. The management philosophies and strategies are revealed in a very reader friendly way. Many foreign businesses want to develop and succeed in China. A useful way of doing this is to observe the lessons of how Chinese enterprises succeed in China. Part of the practical Cases in Modern Chinese Business Series which offer revealing insights and analysis on how business is done in China. They offer case studies on how companies in China get started and how they succeed and fail. Clear and practical, each book explores how Chinese companies are expanding and thriving in the international market. All titles were written in China and give the real flavour of the Chinese business arena and some of the key players. To understand the economic and financial success of modern China it helps to get to know the business environment and some of the leading protagonists. These revealing new books show you how.

This book offers a thoroughly researched and accessibly written account of the John Lewis Partnership. It describes what the JLP is, how it works, and what other businesses can learn from it. The US/UK model of the firm, with its emphasis on shareholder value and its openness to the market in the buying and selling of businesses, is prone to a number of problematic consequences for employees, suppliers, and sometimes share-holders. The JLP represents a contrast to this model - one that has implications beyond the small niche of mutually-owned firms. The JLP has lessons for organizations that are unlikely to move towards the Partnership's distinctive shared ownership. This book identifies these lessons. The key questions addressed include: how does the JLP work in practice? What is the link between co-ownership, the JLP employment model, and the performance of the businesses? What is the role of management in the success of John Lewis and Waitrose? Are mutuality, co-ownership and business performance at odds? What is the significance of democracy within the JLP? And probably most significantly: what are the implications, for policy-makers and for economic agents of the JLP? This book is based on detailed knowledge of the JLP and its constituent business gathered by the authors over a fifteen year period. Their conclusion: that the JLP is more complex, even more impressive, and more interesting than its admirers realise.