Ford Library

Lyons, Tom  and Richard Curran. Fingers: the man who brought down Irish Nationwide and cost us €5.4bn. Gill & Macmillan, 2013.

Bagli, Charles V. Other people’s money : inside the housing crisis and the demise of the greatest real estate deal ever made. Dutton, 2013. also available in audiobook format.

It has been 6 long years since the Great Recession began in 2008 and people are starting to ask how it happened that no Wall Street bankers were charged with crimes for their part in meltdown of the economy.  Taxpayers are asking why they covered the losses of the powerful, while ordinary citizens who owed money lost all their assets. Two new books in the Ford Library describe the origins of two financial crises, one in Ireland and the other in New York City, explaining what went wrong and who is to blame.

In Fingers, business journalists Tom Lyons and Richard Curran tell the story of Michael Fingleton, self-made man, one-time billionaire and banking legend, who as head of the Irish Nationwide Building Society was responsible for the second largest failure in Irish history.  The authors describe the greed and ambition of the CEO, as well as his autocratic style, effectively a one-man loan department.  They explore the reasons for the society’s failure, including mismanagement and a troubled culture.  They also expose how financial regulators knew about the problems at the bank for decades yet did nothing to induce change.  In the end, the bank’s failure cost the Irish taxpayers 5.4 billion euros, while Fingers and his political friends walked away.

Similarly across the pond, New York Times journalist Charles Bagli explains in Other People’s Money how international real estate mega-firm Tishman Speyer Properties and its partner, BlackRock, lost $4 billion on a single deal financed with almost zero equity.  Using this project as a lens into the housing bubble, Bagli explains that investors expected housing prices to rise perpetually while developers failed to anticipate resistance from established tenants.  Wall Street banks loaned billions to the developers despite inadequate cash flow expectations because they rebundled the loans and sold them to investors.  In the end, Tishman Speyer and BlackRock walked away from the property unscathed, while the investment losses by public employee retirement funds flowed down to city budgets and to individual retirement accounts.

Both books are clear first person accounts of titanic failures that explain the causes and consequences of the real estate bubble in the early 21st century.  Both are recommended.

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

Levine, Alison.  On the edge : the art of high-impact leadership. Business Plus, 2014. — also available in Kindle and audiobook formats.

Alison Levine completed her MBA at the Fuqua School in 2000 and has remained active with the School, serving in leadership roles at both the Fuqua/Coach K Center for Leadership and Ethics, as well as Fuqua’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship.  Outside of Duke, Levine has held positions of leadership in a variety of other nonprofit organizations worldwide. In 2003, she served as Deputy Finance Director for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful campaign for Governor. She also founded the Climb High Foundation, a nonprofit organization that trains women in third world countries to be mountain guides and porters in their local mountains so they can benefit from climbing- and trekking-related tourism.  Alison is currently the co-chair of the West Coast chapter of 85 Broads, a member of the Association of Women MBAs and was a founding member of World Wildlife Fund’s Young Partners in Conservation.  A popular and talented keynote speaker, Levine is also an adjunct professor at the US Military Academy at West Point.

In 2002, Levine served as team captain of the first American Women’s Everest Expedition and she returned to Mt. Everest in 2010 to climb to the summit.  These adventures form the basis for her best-selling new book, On the Edge.  For Levine, mountain climbing is a metaphor for endurance, willpower and achievement.  Her book is about the leadership lessons that she learned during those two climbs – the need for teamwork, moral character and emotional intelligence.  She explains that preparedness is key to success and advises readers to condition for sleep deprivation, even for those whose challenges take place in the office.  Levine uses vivid descriptions of environmental hardships on the mountains to explain that while we cannot control our environment, we can control the way we react to it.  She also explains that backtracking does not necessarily mean you are losing ground, if you are strengthening the foundation of your effort.

Levine chose the women for her team on her first attempt to summit Mount Everest by using telephone interviews.  She “screened for aptitude, then hired for attitude.”  She chose experienced team members who were confident about their skills and felt proud to be members of the team.  As a skilled leader, she developed personal relationships with individual team members to build loyalty and trust, and fostered relationships with those who offered encouragement and support.

In addition to serving as team captain of the first American Women’s Everest Expedition, Levine also achieved the Adventure Grand Slam, climbing the highest peak on every continent (the Seven Summits), and skiing to both the North and South Poles.  In addition to her successes, Levine details her mistakes.  She describes her own bad judgment during a climb up the Carstensz Pyramid in western New Guinea, as she put herself in danger without proper equipment.  Also compelling was her description of her skiing to the South Pole in 2008.  As the weakest team member, she learned from her leaders to help others compensate for their vulnerabilities.   Levine lays out her story with candor and humor.  Her engaging book is highly recommended.

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

Today on March 8, the world celebrates International Women’s Day, in recognition of women’s achievements throughout history and across nations.  And at the same time, the entire month of March is dedicated to women’s history, 31 days when we celebrate women of character, courage and commitment. (http://www.nwhp.org/) Cynics may say that these days in March are to compensate for overlooking the achievements by women.  But optimists may observe that opportunities for women are improving and attitudes about women are changing worldwide. Today, International Women’s Day, these three books are dedicated to Fuqua women who are making work-life decisions about their futures.

The XX Factor by Alison Wolf – Prior to 1970 the primary roles for working women were secretaries, nurses, teachers and librarians.  Today highly educated women routinely hold key managerial roles in Fortune 500 companies and government.  They own their own businesses and are widely represented in professions such as law, medicine, banking and the clergy.  Yet millions of ordinary women still work in female dominated occupations.  In The XX Factor, British professor Alison Wolf explains that women in elite occupations make different choices in daily activities and personal lives than women in traditional female occupations, who are likely to be far poorer.  In their work habits, job choices, family patterns and daily tasks, upper class women have more in common with their male professional colleagues.  Elite women are better educated and work longer hours.  They marry later, if at all. They have fewer (or no) children; they bear them later in life and return to work immediately.  Elite women spend little time on activities in the home such as cooking or laundry, and they devote their time during the evenings and on weekends to their managerial work. High earning men and women marry each other, concentrating wealth within a small elite and creating a less equal world.

Dare by Becky Blalock – Strategy consultant and former executive of Georgia Power writes her new book for women in middle management who aspire to senior leadership at their companies.  Author Becky Blalock advises women to seek out new opportunities and to take more risks, accepting roles that are beyond their current expertise.  Most of the book is practical guidance generated from personal experience showing women how to differentiate themselves to stand out from the crowd.  She explains how to project a confident attitude and to become comfortable with ambiguity.  She encourages readers to develop relationships with others inside and outside the organization, building a support network of professional colleagues and mentors, and by becoming a mentor to others in return.

All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior – Amazon.com sells over 50,000 books on parenting, and most of them address the profound ways that parents influence their children’s intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical lives.  But journalist Jennifer Senior’s new book is about how children affect their parents at each stage of their development.  Children strain marriages, compromise their parents’ sleep and work, and jeopardize their parents’ psychological health.  But children also bring meaning and purpose to the lives of their parents.  As parents commit to something bigger than themselves, parenthood brings strength and integrity.  While parents  admit that it is no fun to interact with their children, they also report that their children bring a heartfelt joy to their lives.

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

I took a Ford Library Kindle to California last month to read the book Scarcity (reviewed here).  When I was finished, I looked through the mini-library of 49 other Business Best Sellers and opened up This is How, an autobiographical self-help book by Augusten Burroughs. Even for the most serious topics, the author’s humor and breezy style were perfect for the Kindle.  When I got to the advice in the last 50 pages, I thought, “Wow, this is why he wrote this book.”  The next day, someone I love dearly received a devastating prognosis and I needed that information.

You never know when you will use a random idea gathered from an unlikely source.  For Fuqua students, spring break is an opportunity to discover something new, to broaden your self-knowledge, or to spark an insight that will be useful later.  These Ford Library books can help.  They are available both in print and on Kindles.

On the Edge by Alison Levine
Fuqua alumna Alison Levine uses her experiences in extreme adventure sports to demonstrate concrete lessons on leadership.  Writing candidly about her success in climbing Mount Everest and in skiing to the South Pole, Levine outlines the guiding principles she learned as a leader and as a team member and shows how to apply them to today’s competitive business environment. Also available in Kindle and Audiobook format. UPDATE – Read a full review here.

The Unwinding by George Packer
Social journalist George Packer uses the stories of ordinary Americans over three decades to explain how the world is undergoing profound social and economic changes that are creating new winners and losers.  He shows that American institutions are no longer working and that cities are in decay.  Ordinary working people are drifting in a sea of change that they cannot control. Also available in Kindle format.

Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff
Media theorist Rushkoff explains that new technologies and lifestyles keep us focused on what is happening right now, which changes the way we experience culture, manage business, conduct politics and make sense of the world.  While this thoughtful book is well researched and contains many insights about our relationship with time, the writing requires concentration from the reader. Also available in Kindle format.

The Great Degeneration by Niall Ferguson
The four key elements of the Western world – representative democracy, the free market, the rule of law and civil society – created unprecedented prosperity and security in Europe and North America.  Now Western economies are stagnant and society is becoming increasingly divided.  Niall Ferguson analyzes changing laws and institutions to explain what is behind our economic malaise and geopolitical decline. Also available in Kindle format.

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

Congratulations, MBA and MMS students!  You are half way to spring break, two weeks when you can transition from process improvement to personal improvement. Here are five books that can help you get more out of life and work.

The Wisdom of Failure, by Laurence G. Weinzimmer and Jim McConoughey The best leaders learn from their own mistakes and those made by others. This book analyzes failures frequently caused by business managers, providing engaging stories and practical strategies to help you avoid the same mistakes.

Creative Confidence, by Tom Kelley and David Kelley Believing that all people are creative, founder and partner of IDEO team up to show ordinary people how to rediscover their full creative potential and to build their creative confidence.

The New Frugality, by Chris Farrell This new release of a personal finance book originally published in 2010, at the height of the global recession, is a guide to making the transition from living on credit to embracing thrift and sustainability.

Start, by Jon Acuff Motivational speaker recounts his own successes and (mostly) failures as he advises readers how to escape average and get on “the road to awesome.” Skimpy content, but could those 300+ five-star reviews on Amazon be wrong? Also available as a Kindle eBook.

Man vs. Markets, by Paddy Hirsch Senior producer of APM’s Marketplace radio show on NPR writes an entertaining primer on equities and markets, money and banking, swaps and derivatives for students who slept through Economics.

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

Mullainathan, Sendhil and Eldar Shafir. Scarcity : why having too little means so much. Henry Holt and Company, 2013. also available as a Kindle eBook.

Anyone who has been an anorexic knows that food becomes the most important thing in life.  Heart and soul becomes about eating and not-eating.  It is all anorexics think about, talk about, even dream about at night.  The world becomes very small and boring.

Anorexia is about food deprivation — a self-imposed scarcity.  In their new book titled Scarcity, faculty members Sendhil Mullainathan (Harvard, economics) and Eldar Shafir (Princeton, psychology) consider the psychological effects of scarcity on people.  Defining scarcity as having less of a resource than one needs, the authors consider the effects of the lack of money, but also the lack of time and social interaction.  Described in this way, scarcity effects everyone – because even the independently wealthy, who are not short of time or money, may be lonely.

The key point to Mullainathan and Shafir’s work is that scarcity is a mindset.  It captures our attention and drives what we notice.  It changes how we think and behave.  It affects our moods and influences our choices.  In times of scarcity, the brain focuses on alleviating shortages, which in turn neglects other needs and opportunities.  The authors call this effect tunneling, and this narrow focus changes the way we view choices.  Options with an immediate payoff are preferred to those with a higher benefit in the long run.  In addition, because we are preoccupied with resolving our scarcity, our mental capacity (bandwidth) is diminished.  Distracted and depleted, we are less insightful and less able to control our impulses. We make poorer decisions and become less effective in all areas of life. Among the poor, the lack of bandwidth caused by juggling loans and unpaid bills accounts for as many as 14 IQ points, enough to take someone from “normal” to “borderline deficient.”   When people are unable to make good decisions for themselves and their children, scarcity becomes entrenched.

Mullainathan and Shafir show how to use the science of scarcity to improve the lives of the poor.  They also show how to manage scarcity in organizations.  For individuals, the authors make recommendations to prepare for tunneling and to insulate against neglect.  Setting up automatic reminders brings other goals into our tunnel. Simple changes to the environment can eliminate bad options.  Awareness of the variation in our personal bandwidth can help us time our activities for more successful results.  This insightful book is repetitive in places, but the conversational style and many examples keep the pages turning.  Recommended.

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

Dunn, Elizabeth & Michael Norton. Happy money : the science of smarter spending. Simon & Schuster, 2013. also available as a Kindle eBook.

In The Everything Store (reviewed here) author Brad Stone said that in 1994, Jeff Bezos used his “regret-minimization framework” to decide to walk away from his Wall Street bonus to start his own company.  Bezos knew that in his later years, he would not miss his bonus, but he would regret missing the opportunity to participate in the ramp up of the Internet, which he believed would be revolutionary.  Bezos left D. E. Shaw and started Amazon, which transformed the retail industry.

In their new book Happy Money, professors Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton reveal that 80% of the time, people’s biggest regret is one of inaction – passing up an opportunity to participate in an experience when the opportunity comes along.  When it comes to material goods, the opposite is true.  Most people’s biggest regret is in buying something they wish they had not.

As faculty members at the U. British Columbia (Dunn) and Harvard (Norton), the authors research how adults spend their money, specifically whether there are ways to spend money that would make people happier.   Earning more is usually not the answer – earnings beyond $75,000 have no effect on happiness.  But using money in certain ways has an impact on satisfaction and Dunn and Norton outline 5 key principles that lead to more personal and professional satisfaction.  They explain that buying experiences such as travel or sports events makes people happy, whereas material goods lead to disappointment.  They also show that limiting access to luxury goods for a short time periods renews the capacity for pleasure.  And they describe how delaying consumption of both experiences and material goods allows spenders to enjoy the pleasures of anticipation.

Dunn and Norton recommend that people focus their attention on their time, choosing activities that promote satisfaction on a daily basis.  Wealthy individuals tend to spend their time working, commuting and shopping instead of pursuing their passions or spending their time with loved ones.  The stress of their activities leads to a lower level of satisfaction than the average American.  Spending time socializing or exercising lead to high levels of well-being, and both are unrelated to income.  Dunn and Norton’s research also shows that spending on others provides the largest happiness boost.

Short and engaging, this book is recommended to anyone wanting more satisfaction.  The content overlaps other books on the topic, including the best sellers written by Fuqua faculty member Dan Ariely.  But for this reviewer, after reading books about the bitter billionaires at Twitter and Amazon last month, Dunn and Norton’s book comes as a welcome experience.

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

Stone, Brad. The everything store : Jeff Bezos and the age of Amazon. Little Brown and Co., 2013. also available as a Kindle eBook.

Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton, reviewed last week in this blog, is about conflicts among its four founders over control of Twitter in the years leading up to its IPO.  This week’s review is about another West Coast technology company, but at Amazon there is no question about who invented it or who is in charge.  When there are fierce confrontations at Amazon, it is because founder and CEO Jeff Bezos prefers it that way.  “Truth springs forth when ideas and perspectives are banged against each other, sometimes violently.”

According to the author Brad Stone in his best selling company history, The Everything Store, in 1994 Jeff Bezos was already a successful Wall Street hedge fund trader at D. E. Shaw when he decided to start a company to capitalize on the power of the internet.  Bezos saw his company as an intermediary between customers and manufacturers, selling the universe of products worldwide.  He realized the internet’s potential for creating a convenient shopping experience, customized for each shopper based on his/her previous purchases.  Shelf space on the internet was infinite so an e-tail store could offer limitless selection.

To start his company, Bezos considered a variety of products, but settled on books.  Books were pure commodities; because each title was identical, buyers knew what they were getting.  Online booksellers were already in existence but Bezos’s goal was to compete with them with an innovative company totally focused on the customer. Bezos obtained funding from his parents and based the company in Seattle, already a technology hub, for sales tax considerations.  He recruited programmers and staff from top schools and named the company Amazon, the world’s largest river, a prophetic choice for what would become the world’s largest bookseller and later, the largest retailer on the globe.

As the company grew, Bezos replaced the original employees with experienced business executives from companies like Microsoft and Walmart.  Stone chronicles the way that the Walmart crew designed a nationwide logistics network of large scale retail distribution outlets, but as Amazon continued to expand into music, toys, electronics, apparel, sporting goods, jewelry and software, Bezos replaced the retail distribution veterans with scientists and engineers, who created supply-chain algorithms to manage the distribution process.   Then Bezos redefined Amazon again as a technology firm as he sold Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing infrastructure.  He developed digital devices like the Kindle ereader and the Kindle Fire tablet.

Stone’s book clearly outlines Amazon’s management practices, strategy and corporate culture.  But much of the book is about Jeff Bezos himself.  Brilliant, focused and competitive, Bezos is a micromanager with creative ideas and high standards for performance.  Employees who do not meet them do not last long at the company.  Stone explains that Bezos treats workers like expendable resources and he lacks empathy toward employees with other interests or families.  He is known for his violent outbursts and insulting comments.  He is ruthless with employees, competitors and even partners.  Stone exposes cutthroat tactics with start-ups like Zappos and Quidsi.   Ironically, Bezos recently asked his management team to take steps to ensure that Amazon stood out among the world’s most loved companies.  Recommended.

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

Bilton, Nick. Hatching Twitter : a true story of money, power, friendship, and betrayal. Portfolio/Penguin, 2013.

Lenin said that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. In this story about the founding of Twitter, New York Times reporter Nick Bilton explains that one of the four creators of Twitter (Jack Dorsey) often told the media that he was the sole inventor and CEO when he was no longer with the company.  Today he is remembered as the sole founder.  In his new book Hatching Twitter, Bilton sets the story straight, detailing the conflicts and jealousies within the company, the lies, infighting, power struggles and ultimately, revenge.

When the story begins, Nebraska native Evan Williams invents Blogger as push-button publishing for the people and sells it to Google for millions.  To prove that he is not a one-hit wonder, he looks to start another tech company.  He meets his neighbor Noah Glass and finances his new web-based podcasting company, Odeo.  Williams is named CEO.  Soon after, they hire Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone and the four friends go on to found Twitter as a side business to Odeo.  Odeo goes out of business, while Twitter becomes a technology phenomenon.  Meanwhile infighting begins as the founders do not agree on what Twitter is and how it should be used.  Is the stream of updates a news service or a status updating service?  Is Twitter a communications utility or a social network?  A web site or mobile application?

As its popularity grows, it becomes apparent that Twitter has a shaky foundation and is badly managed.  Yet the book contains few details about the business aspects of Twitter, its management, strategy or technology. Most of the text is about the creators’ inept management and their disputes.  As friends, the founders avoid conflict and, as they seethe in anger, significant problems go unresolved.  Over time, Ev and Jack force out Noah; Ev forces out Jack; investors force out Ev; Jack returns to the company.

This gossipy page-turner contains ample details about the founders’  lives and emotions.  Jack Dorsey receives especially rough treatment, portrayed as a superficial vengeful Steve Jobs wannabe.  The side sketches of people like Mark Zuckerberg and Al Gore are amusing as they offer to buy Twitter.  In places the writing is melodramatic but this book is recommended as an engaging history of the inventors of an important technology company.

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

Malcolm Gladwell. David and Goliath : underdogs, misfits, and the art of battling giants. Little, Brown and Company, 2013. Also available as a Kindle eBook and an audiobook.

Master storyteller Malcolm Gladwell’s newest bestseller is a series of remarkable tales of ordinary people who face overwhelming challenges and are forced to respond.  He explains that powerful people may not be as omnipotent as they first appear; and that sometimes disabilities or disadvantages can leave people stronger and wiser.

Gladwell begins his book with the bible story, the battle between the giant and the shepherd boy.  He explains that Goliath’s massive size is no match for David’s speed and agility, that by changing the terms of the battle from physical might to precision and maneuverability, David’s size and skills become assets and he turns the giant’s strengths into weaknesses.  In other stories, Gladwell shows how families or institutions with prestige and resources can enrich and engage us, yet too much of those advantages can limit our options, make us lose ambition, or hurt our confidence.  More is not always better and not all difficulties are negative, particularly for people who develop attributes to overcome them, such as courage, resourcefulness and tenacity.

There are negative reviews of Gladwell’s David and Goliath, from critics who claim that the book lacks evidence and logic.  Gladwell uses science to back his conclusions using studies with small sample sizes that cannot be replicated.  But even the critics admit that readers will enjoy the colorful stories of people who overcome great difficulties and they will appreciate the historical contexts of the Battle of Britain, U.S. civil rights movement, the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland and many others.  Recommended.

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