Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office uncovers the secrets behind the success of the great CEOs through their lives and personal stories. Why did Ray Kroc's plan for McDonald's thrive when all the other burger joints failed? How can we apply his lessons to Krispy Kreme? How did Walt Disney's most dismal day as a young cartoonist radically change his career direction? We learn about their biggest challenges and failures, and how they successfully rode the waves of demographic and technological change. When Estee Lauder was a child in Queens, New York, the average American spent $8 a year on toiletries. How did she spot an opportunity in high-priced cosmetics? Why did she pound on the doors of Saks? How did Thomas Watson, Jr., decide to roll the dice and put all of IBM's chips on computing, when his father thought it could be a losing idea?

Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office not only fascinates with the personal lives of these CEOs, it shows how we can transfer their ideas today to the triumphs and struggles of Sony, Dell, Costco, Carnival Cruises, Time Warner, and numerous other companies trying to figure out how to stay on top, or climb back up. The featured CEOs in this book were not candidates for sainthood. Many of them knew "God" only as a prefix to "damm it." But they were devoted to their businesses, not just to their egos, personal bank accounts, and yachts.

Extraordinarily fresh and deeply thoughtful, Todd G. Buchholz's Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office is a truly enjoyable and fun--yet serious and realistic--look at what we still have to learn and absorb from these former CEOs.

What is the GDP, and what does it mean? Why does the stock market go down when interest rates go up? What causes a dreaded recession? Economics impacts everyone's life, but most people take on faith what they read in the newspaper. Now, for anyone who doesn't know much about economics, noted economist Todd Buchholz explains it all simply and clearly. With refreshing wit and irreverence, Buchholz takes readers by the hand and reveals the basic rules behind everything from food prices to trade deficits. Instead of complicated graphs and charts he uses examples from contemporary life and popular culture to demonstrate the principles at work. By cutting through the arcane musings of academicians, the jargon of analysts and advisors, and the rhetoric of politicians, he gives us a precise and accessible understanding of economic ideas, actions, and consequences as they actually exist in the here and now. Here are some of the heretofore unintelligible ideas he helps us to understand: what causes or combats inflation, and why it is so feared; what moves stocks and bonds up and down - and how to invest wisely and safely; whether it is good or bad to "protect" America from foreign goods - and what happens when we do and when we don't; what exactly Social Security is, and whether government spending is good or bad - and how dangerous the national debt is or isn't. In today's confusing economic climate, it has never been more important for everyone from homemakers to small-business owners to individual investors and middle managers to understand the forces at work.