Ford Library

Have travel plans for Thanksgiving?

Ford Library has recently added a number of new audiobook titles. Check out a few to listen to during your trip. Click on a title to see if the audiobook is available. There are many more choices in our extensive audiobook section and in our special feature areas.

• When Markets Collide by Mohamed A. El-Erian
• The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey
• Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution
• The First Billion is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America’s Energy Future by David Bach
• Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism  by Kevin Phillips
• The World is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy by David M. Smick

Are you ready for Entrepreneurship Week (Nov. 17th-23rd)?

Ford Library is here to help.

Check out these great titles on entrepreneurship and start-ups. Click on the link to check availability or to place a hold.

Entrepreneurship Guides:

• New venture management: The entrepreneur’s roadmap By Donald F. Kuratko, Jeffrey S. Hornsby
• The one minute entrepreneur By Ken Blanchard, Don Hutson,and Ethan Willis Audiobook
• The entrepreneur’s guide to writing business plans and proposals By K. Dennis Chambers
• Technology ventures: From idea to enterprise By Richard C. Dorf, Thomas H. Byers
• New venture creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st century By Jeffry A. Timmons and Stephen Spinelli, Jr.
• How to get to the top: Business lessons learned at the dinner table By Jeffrey J. Fox Audiobook

Start-ups and New Business Ventures:

• Start your own business: The only startup book you’ll ever need By Rieva Lesonsky
• Own it: The law & business guide to launching a new business through innovation, exclusivity and relevance By Jon M. Garon
• Campus CEO: The student entrepreneur’s guide to launching a multimillion-dollar business By Randal Pinkett

Read more …

Interested in learning more about Russia?

How about the United Kingdoms or global opportunities in Europe?

Hopefully everyone took the opportunity to hear yesterday’s Distinguished Speaker, Arkady Dvorkovich, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation. But if you missed it or you are just interested in learning more about Russia please see the list of books, audiobooks, and DVDs on Russia below.

Also included here are items for another global partnership country, the United Kingdoms.

Additional items on Russia, United Kingdom, Dubai, India, and China can be found by browsing our special feature sections at the front of the library. Click on any of the links below to check availability or place a hold.

Russia:

• Russia and the Soviet Union By Ralph Raico Audiobook
• Doing Business with Russia: A Guide to Investment Opportunities and Business Practice Edited by Dr. Marat Terterov
• Globalisation in China, India, and Russia : emergence of national groups and global strategies of firms Edited by Jean-Francois Huchet, Xavier Richet, Joel Ruet
• Russia, Land of the Tsars (Partisan Pictures for the History Channel) Academic DVD
• Commanding Heights:The Battle for the World Economy (An Invision Productions Limited production)

Read more …

This week’s movie spotlight is on titles that feature ethics-challenged characters and characters in ethically challenging situations. Enjoy and look for another movie ethics entry soon.

• The Constant Gardener–Based on a John Le Carre novel, the movie follows Justin Quayle, a diplomat trying to track down his wife’s murderer. Using false identities, Quayle travels across continents trying to piece together the circumstances leading to her death. He learns his wife had uncovered a corporate scandal with very deep roots.
• Michael Clayton–Michael Clayton’s mentor Arthur Edens, the top litigator in his law firm, turns from advocate to whistleblower in a $3-billion case with a large agricultural products conglomerate, U-North. Edens has discovered U-North engaged in a major cover-up. Once Clayton realizes the extent of the company’s malfeasance, both he and Eden’s lives are in danger.
• Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead–A dark family drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as an overextended broker, and Ethan Hawke as his desperate younger brother. They rob their parents’ jewelry store, but their mother ends up shot. The whole affair is further complicated when their father goes on a hunt for the culprits. Acclaimed filmmaker Sidney Lumet directs this suspense thriller.

Hot, flat, and crowded : why we need a green revolution– and how it can renew America by Thomas L. Friedman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

Following his blockbuster book on globalization, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman has written another destined for a multi-year stay on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Hot, Flat, and Crowded focuses on three global trends that will soon undermine the quality of life of earth: Global warming, the rise of the middle class world-wide and rapid population growth. As billions more people adopt middle class consumption patterns, the effect on climate, natural resources and biodiversity will be devastating. In addition, the world will experience tighter energy supplies, a division between electricity haves and have-nots, and a transfer of wealth to petro-powers, which are largely anti-democratic.

After focusing on the problems of global warming, population growth, and consumerism in the first half of the book, Friedman outlines his solution in the second. He proposes “Code Green” to transform our our current Dirty Fuels System to a clean-powered, energy-efficient, conservation-based system. Friedman calls for a revolution, the largest innovation project in American history.

Overall, this is an optimistic book. Friedman says that thirty years ago, America could be counted on to lead the world in response to the important challenges of the day, but recently the US lost its way. The green revolution is an opportunity to become that city on the hill once again, providing leadership on healing the earth.

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

This week we’re highlighting some of our movies that showcase teamwork. Check back later for movie selections on ethics. You can find all of the movies below in our DVD collection.

• Heart of the Game–This documentary follows a Seattle girls basketball team through four seasons after Bill Resler, their new
  coach, takes over the team. Resler’s enthusiastic coaching, complete with wild seasonal metaphors (“tropical storm”, “school
  of pirahna”) for the team, sparks several wins but complications abound. The girls must learn to incorporate their more
  athletic members without letting them dominate team play. Even non-sports fans should enjoy this one.
• Apollo 13–The 1970 Apollo 13 mission was the third manned lunar landing. Crippled by an explosion two days after launch,
  the Apollo spacecraft’s heat, power and water resources were severely compromised. The power loss limited voice
  communications with the flight controllers. Under extreme pressure and with clever management of scarce resources, the crew manages to make it home safely.
• Saving Private Ryan–Set in World War II during the invasion of Normandy, the film follows Captain John H. Miller who takes a
  small group of soldiers behind enemy lines. Their mission is to retrieve a private whose three brothers have all been killed
  in action. The unit’s cohesiveness is tested after the first enemy skirmish. Critics consider this movie one of the most
  realistic war films ever produced.

When markets collide : investment strategies for the age of global economic change by Mohamed A. El-Erian. McGraw-Hill, 2008.

This book is about the fundamental changes that are occurring in global economic and financial systems. Existing financial infrastructures and systems are under pressure. Economic power is shifting from mature to emerging financial markets. Global growth is now influenced by former debtor nations that are building unforeseen wealth and facing unusual challenges. For investors, the transformation in the global economy has significant consequences.

Author El-Erian, CIO of PIMCO and former CEO of Harvard Management Company presents a diagnosis of the present financial turmoil and offers explicit investment advice to readers on how to exploit new opportunities and minimize exposure to changing patterns of risk.

El-Erian sees four trends: 1) Realignment in global growth 2) Return of inflation 3) Structured finance has diminished the barriers to entry 4) The transfer of wealth. He recommends that firms retool risk management and pay more attention to the middle and back-office activities that are less glamorous. He recommends that investors invest more internationally and less in the US.

This lucid explanation of the credit crisis won the 2008 Financial Times and the Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year awards.

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

Ford Library presents a new database based on the widely popular series Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More Than Sixty Countries.

This new database also includes Dun & Bradstreet’s Guide to Doing Business Around the World and articles written for publications like Industry Week and American Way Magazine, as well as the 2008 World Holiday and Time Zone Guide for over 100 countries.

Connect to Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands

E-books on Culture, Business Etiquette, and Global Business Practices: (These e-books are available through the Duke online catalog via NetLibrary.)

• Managing Complexity in Global Organizations (IMD Executive Development Series): Drawing together insights from across the expert faculty, Managing Complexity in the Global Organization presents IMD’s framework on how to understand complexity and its four key drivers (diversity; interdependence; ambiguity and flux), along with solutions on specific issues in a variety of functions, industries and markets. The focus is on providing practical solutions based on real-life examples.

Read more …

Followership : how followers are creating change and changing leaders by Barbara Kellerman. Harvard Business School Press, 2008.

As a follow-up to the book Bad Leadership, author Barbara Kellerman writes about the complex relationship between those who have power, authority and influence and those who do not. Most organizations have systems and structures in which superiors control their subordinates. Yet sometimes the line that separates leaders from followers is blurred. In addition, leaders may find themselves following and followers end up with more power and influence than their leaders. And most managers are both superior and subordinate at the same time.

The most interesting part of the book is the discussion about different followership styles in Part II. Author Kellerman outlines five types of followers: Isolates, Bystanders, Participants, Activists and Diehards. These followers range from those who are completely withdrawn to those who are fully engaged, either in support of or in opposition to their leaders.

This book contains vivid examples of leadership issues. Most interesting are the chapters about Merck’s marketing of its miracle drug, Vioxx; and about Cardinal Law and the Voice of the Faithful in Boston.

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

This month we’re highlighting some of our movies that show characters in strong leadership roles. Check back for more movie selections on teamwork and ethics. You can find these titles in our DVD collection.

• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World—Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, Captain Jack Aubrey leads the crew of the HMS Surprise against the French warship Acheron after the Acheron launches a surprise attack. Creative intelligence and clever subterfuge by Aubrey and his men undermine a foe superior in strength and speed.
• Elizabeth—In early Renaissance England the young queen, beset by scheming advisers and determined enemies, must navigate political minefields and assassination attempts. It’s a fascinating portrait of Elizabeth’s early years and the great personal sacrifices she made during her rise to power.
• Shackleton—Ernest Shackleton’s undertaking to cross the Antarctic continent turned from an ambitious enterprise to a perilous fight for survival. His ship becomes trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea during the winter of 1915. After the ice crushes and sinks the ship, the explorer must lead his men over 800 miles of barren tundra and frigid ocean to safety.