Archive for October, 2014

Book Review: The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Monday, October 27th, 2014

hard-thingsHorowitz, Ben. The hard thing about hard things : building a business when there are no easy answers. Harper Business, 2014.

In 2007 when Blair Sheppard was Dean, he asked me to make him a list each quarter — a list of 5 books that he could recommend to CEO’s.  This task turned out to be a hard thing to execute, more difficult than it seemed at first hearing.  To find the 5 best books, you must read a great many.

One book that would definitely be on the list is The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, the cofounder of an ongoing Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz and cofounder/former CEO of the software company, Opsware.  Horowitz draws on his experience as software engineer, entrepreneur, CEO  and venture capitalist to offer advice to technology entrepreneurs on hiring and managing talent, programming company culture, taking a company public and more.

In this engaging book, Horowitz tells his personal story against the backdrop of technology history after 1990, distilling the business and life lessons that he learned along the way.  Early in his career, Horowitz is at Netscape in charge of their web server product line.  During his tenure there, Microsoft releases Internet Explorer, challenging Netscape in a war for survival.  After Netscape is sold to America Online in 1998, Horowitz starts another company, Loudcloud.  Following the 2000 dot-com implosion, the company is sold to EDS but Horowitz keeps the software, Opsware, which is eventually sold to Hewlett Packard in 2007 for $1.6 billion.

Not everything goes as planned.  As Horowitz takes his companies from founding to going public to sale, he experiences both great success and near bankruptcy.  He uses his struggles to advise readers on how to lay people off and how to tell the truth when things fall apart.  He also offers advice on leading during uncertain times and on scaling a company.  In the end, Horowitz begins a venture capital firm to help technology company founders run their own companies.  And he writes a very readable book for entrepreneurs.  Recommended.

Also available in Kindle e-reader and online audiobook format.

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

New Movies for October: Part 2

Friday, October 24th, 2014

Here are the last of our new DVD titles for this month:

Godzilla DVD Cover
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., season 1
Fed Up
God’s Pocket
Godzilla
Long Way Down
The German Doctor
Ida
Ilo Ilo
Jodorowsky’s Dune
Lucky Them
Transformers: Age of Extinction

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

Fall Break With Malcolm Gladwell

Monday, October 13th, 2014

Fall Break is here!Congratulations, students!  You have survived the intensity of Fall Term 1.  Just polish off those final exams this week and you can bust out of town for Fall Break.  Whether you head for the snowy slopes of Squaw Valley or the showy shops in New York, you can travel with America’s best storyteller, Malcolm Gladwell.

In your car or on an airplane, listening to Gladwell makes the transit time melt away.  And you can hear Gladwell via a Ford Library audiobook by downloading one of his best sellers onto your own device — iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet. All his best books are available.

David and Goliath. Gladwell’s most recent book is about the powerful and considers the curious advantage of being the underdog.  Downloadable audio. Also in print, Audio CD and Business Bestseller Kindle.

Outliers. Gladwell examines successful people, who inhabit their world of advantages and inheritances, some that are earned through hard work and others that are simply good fortune. Downloadable audio. Also in print, Audio CD and Business Classics Kindle.

Blink. Humans use both conscious and unconscious modes of thinking and sometimes instant decisions can be as good as those made deliberately.  Downloadable audio. Also in print, Audio CD and Business Classics Kindle.

The Tipping Point.  Written years before social media, Gladwell’s first commercially successful book explores how ideas and trends suddenly go viral.  Downloadable audio.  Also in print, Audio CD and Business Classics Kindle.

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

New Movies for October: Part 1

Thursday, October 9th, 2014

Here are the first of our new DVD titles this month:faultinourstars2

Captain America, the Winter Soldier
Chef
The Fault in Our Stars
Neighbors
Palo Alto
The Signal

 

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.