Ford Library

Fried, Jason and David Hansson. Rework. Crown Business, 2010.

Two founders of the successful software company 37signals, Jason Fried and David Hansson, draw on their experience to teach entrepreneurs how to run a company without meetings, budgets, advertising or a board of directors.  They prove that a company can be successful by remaining small, lean and fast; by selling to smaller firms instead of the Fortune 500;  and by staying competitive by making the product unique.

Fried and Hansson encourage readers to focus on core principles, such a reliability, affordability and practicality. They discourage long-term contracts, permanent decisions and thick processes, which hamper the ability to change.   Using their early experiences at 37signals as examples, they recommend doing product launches “on the cheap” and they question whether small companies need an accountant when they can use Quicken, or whether they need an IT department when they can outsource.

This book is organized into 87 chapters, each two pages in length.  This straightforward book is an easy read for anyone interested in starting a business.   Available in both print and audio CD at the Ford Library.

© Reviewer: Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.

Ford Library will be CLOSED TOMORROW, Saturday, August 27, 2011 due to inclement weather. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Barring widespread power outages due to high winds, the Library’s online resources should remain available via our web site.

Remember to check our Twitter feed for the latest updates to our hours.

Stay safe!

Arthur
Breaking Bad, season 1
Dexter, season 1
It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Once a Thief: the complete series
Ondine
The Perfect Game
Rango
Rio
The Secret of Moonacre
Soul Surfer
Source Code
The Special Relationship
That Evening Sun
The Wildest Dream

Schultz, Howard. Onward : how Starbucks fought for its life without losing its soul. Rodale, 2011.

More than just a cup of high end espresso, Starbucks is about the great coffee experience — combining the aroma, the flavor, and the human connection to invite every customer to become part of the Starbucks community.

In Onward, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz tells the story of how from 2007-2010, he takes the company back to the guiding principles that he established as a young man from a blue collar neighborhood, balancing profit with social conscience, treating everyone from coffee farmers, to baristas, to customers with fairness, respect and dignity.

When the book begins, entrepreneur and chairman Schultz is dissatisfied with the high growth strategy of CEO Jim Donald, sensing that the quality of the store experience has fallen. Schultz uses backroom politics to force out Donald, and takes over the job as CEO. Writing with passion and sincerity, Schultz describes his company’s problems as sales and profits sag. He engineers a turnaround by retraining staff, closing stores, cutting costs and providing more information to store managers.

More a memoir than a company history, this book is emotional and biased. Yet the personal and authentic style makes an engrossing read for those interested in becoming an entrepreneur or CEO.

© Reviewer : Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.

The following Library systems or databases will be off-line for maintenance at the times indicated below.

Ford Library’s Searchable FAQ (hosted by the University of Pennsylvania) will be unavailable from 5pm today (Friday, August 19), until 10am, Saturday, August 20, due to major electrical maintenance at Penn Libraries.

The Library Catalog will undergo maintenance tonight (Friday, August 19) from 7:00-9:00 p.m. During this time, users will not have access to their library accounts, or the requesting and renewing functionality. Search functionality will be available at http://search.library.duke.edu/.

ABI/INFORM Complete & other ProQuest databases will be offline for maintenance & unavailable for 12 hours from 10pm Saturday, August 20 until 10am on Sunday, August 21.

Thanks for your patience and understanding during these maintenance operations; and please email us at reference-librarians@fuqua.duke.edu if any of the above systems remain unavailable after the maintenance interval has passed.

Diana Sanchez is the winner of our 5 Days of Ford contest! Congratulations Diana, your survival kit awaits you!

Let me thank you all for participating in our survey contest; in particular I’d like to recognize Carlton Brown and Paula Robinson here at the Ford Library. They were responsible for designing, uploading, and monitoring the surveys; so applause for their great work.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the Ford Library. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about our services; or stop by if you’d like a brief tour.

Jane Day
Associate Director/Manager of Public Services
Ford Library at the Fuqua School of Business
Duke University

Lane, Randall. The zeroes : my misadventures in the decade Wall Street went insane. Portfolio, 2010.

Founder and editor-in-chief of Trader Monthly and Dealmaker magazines, Randall Lane, tells his company’s boom and bust story, with Wall Street’s mania and reckoning running in the background.  This engrossing story of greed and excess, of power and ego, flies high on wealth and materialism, but comes down in a crash with the 2008 Wall Street meltdown at the end.

The story begins in 2004 when Lane and partner Magnus Greaves launch Trader Monthly, a glossy magazine for, and about Wall Street traders.  A typical trader is a man under 30 earning $400,000 a year and spending all of it.  These men care deeply about who has the fastest car, the biggest watch and the most expensive vodka.  Trader Monthly treats these men as celebrities, displaying their vast wealth and boosting their egos.  Luxury goods advertisers like Gulfstream, Maybach and Bulgari are delighted with the marketing opportunities.

While his company generates few profits, Lane becomes a financial industry insider, rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful.   He sponsors outrageous events to create buzz for his company.  As the economy sours, he uses personal funds to bolster his company.  By 2008 he is unable to sell his company and his personal savings are depleted.  As the book ends, he has little to show for the decade, except this most entertaining story.

© Reviewer : Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.

Welcome to Day Five!

Today’s survey takes you back to our Library web site to visit one of our especially useful pages. If you’ve come this far with us, you’re definitely in the running for the prize!

Here’s the fifth and final survey link. Thanks for your participation, and we’ll be announcing the winner next week!

Day Four digs into databases.

The Library’s online databases are your go-to resource for detailed company, industry, and financial data, as well as articles and much more.

Here’s the fourth survey link. Thanks for your participation!

Day Three is all about “Reference”.

Reference help is the guidance our librarians give you with locating and using resources for your classwork, and job search.

Here’s the third survey link. Thanks for your participation!