Centerplate Holiday Reading List
News
Cure the monotony of a long drive visiting family during the holidays with this selection of audiobooks from Centerplate Reading Club.
The Accidental Investment Banker
An insider’s report on investment banking: how it grew and fell, and grew and fell, and who made it happen.
Whenever there are dramatic upheavals on Wall Street, shock waves ricochet throughout the U.S. and world economies. And, when you say Wall Street, most people think of its storied investment banks – Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase. Who built and ran these firms? What makes them tick? How did they fare in the booming 1990s? And what is happening to them (at least, what was happening just before the autumn 2008 crackup). Investment banker Jonathan A. Knee, a Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley alumnus, reports on his career and on the investment banking industry. He explains how these firms have changed radically from the days when J.P. Morgan Jr. advised his peers to do “first-class business in a first-class way” to the Wall Street motto of the 1990s, “IBG-YBG” (“I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone”), meaning, “Who cares what happens long-term regarding the deals we do today?” This shockingly shortsighted viewpoint led to the recent bitter harvest. If you want to understand how Wall Street works – and sometimes doesn’t work – getAbstract recommends this informative, insightful and witty book. View More
A Farewell to Alms
A Brief Economic History of the World.
The topic of this thrilling book, 20 years in the making, is nothing less than the history of civilization, from the Neolithic Revolution to the Industrial Revolution to today. Rather than relating history as a story of kings, Caesars, popes, prelates and presidents, Gregory Clark tells the story through economic data, much of which is the result of his own analysis of documentary evidence. Almost every other page contains a beautiful graph, table or chart illuminating some dimly lit bit of history. And Clark’s detours are almost as wonderful as his main argument. His writing is elegant and clear, his sense of humor present but not annoying. While this book has outraged some commentators, it’s hard to see why, given the caution with which Clark presents his conclusions. Most likely, the flash point is his stress on culture as enabling and retarding economic growth – views that sometimes get wrongly equated with racism. getAbstract recommends this book to anyone who wants to quantitatively enhance his or her conception of human history. View More
Blue Ocean Strategy
To be in the same boat as Starbucks and Curves, sail your “blue ocean strategy” into uncharted, uncontested waters.
This breakthrough book provides an organized framework for identifying and implementing out-of-the-box “blue ocean strategies” in all industries. The blue ocean strategy explains how to sail your business into new markets with less competition and greater profitability. Disarmingly written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, the book is energized with fresh research about the impact of innovative ideas on old industries. The compelling business examples alone are worth taking this cruise. Even the appendices make interesting reading and contain more detailed examples about products ranging from the Model T to movie theaters (the authors explain how innovators reinvented theaters and created their own blue ocean phenomena). While the book provides its share of rules and principles for intrepid strategists to follow, complete with its own jargon, managers easily can navigate right to the authors’ key strategic advice. getAbstract.com considers this book essential for any strategist or entrepreneur who wants to move out of intensively competitive shark-infested waters and into the relative tranquility of the open blue ocean. Getting there isn’t risk free, but great adventure awaits the intrepid executive who makes the voyage. View More