American Business

Dozens of men were called "robber barons", but none were as notorious or rich as John D. Rockefeller, who co-founded Standard Oil and turned it into the first real trust in the United States. Rockefeller had been groomed ambitiously by a huckster father nicknamed "Devil Bill", who was just as willing to cheat his son as an unsuspecting public, and John certainly chased his dreams of living long and large.

Dozens of men were called "robber barons", but few were as notorious or rich as John Pierpont Morgan, a financier and banker who bankrolled the consolidation of behemoth corporations across various industries. Morgan was behind the merging of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company, which subsequently became General Electric, still known simply as GE across the world today.

Over the course of his long film career, Paul Newman was one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood during his peak. Having come to prominence as a handsome but rebellious young man in the mold of James Dean, Newman was able to maintain an aura that viewers found both cool and irresistible even into his 60s, typically an age when leading men find themselves on the outs. Newman was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Road to Perdition (2002) when he was in his late 70s.

Dozens of men were called robber barons, but few of them were as notorious as Cornelius Vanderbilt, who also happened to be one of the nation's first business titans. Vanderbilt was a railroad and shipping magnate at a time when the industry was almost brand new, but he rode his success to become one of the richest and most powerful men in American history. The industrial might wielded by men like Vanderbilt in the later 19th century directly led to public backlash and made President Teddy Roosevelt the "trust buster".

The Gilded Age and the dawn of the 20th century are often remembered as an era full of monopolies, trusts, and economic giants in heavy industries like oil and steel. Men like John Rockefeller built empires and financiers like J.P. Morgan merged and consolidated them. The era also made names like Astor, Cooke, and Vanderbilt instantly recognizable across the globe. Over time, the unfathomable wealth generated by the businesses made the individuals on top incredibly rich.

When it comes to the entertainment world and movie business, few names are as recognizable as Walt Disney, a versatile writer, producer, director, artist, and voice actor who literally turned his name into a billion-dollar business. Whether it was through the creation of iconic cartoons like Mickey Mouse or America's favorite theme parks, Disney and his assorted businesses have entertained countless numbers of people across the globe, particularly young kids.

Few Americans have a reputation and legacy anything like Henry Ford's, the man whose name is still associated with one of the world's most famous car companies. Ford is unquestionably one of his country's most famous industrialists, and his use of an assembly line to mass produce automobiles was not only innovative but also made it possible for Americans to own cars en masse.

While many have decried that email is dead, a handful of marketers have quietly been using little-known email marketing techniques to generate massive results. In Email Marketing Demystified, digital marketing expert Matthew Paulson reveals the strategies and techniques that top email marketers use to build large mailing lists, to write compelling copy that converts and to generate substantially more sales using nothing but their email lists.

Thousands of people serving their communities have discovered surprising things about leadership: it's much more about listening than directing, more about learning than knowing, more about willingness to deeply challenge themselves than any special inborn qualities - and that grasping all this is a rewarding practice that never ends. This is their story.

I have an enormous amount of respect for people who consider themselves entrepreneurs. People who, in most cases, take tremendous risks in hopes of experiencing tremendous rewards. Not only for themselves but for the world at large. Entrepreneurs hire the most people, drive the economy, create innovation, promote research and development, while shaping new products and services.

Watching his father struggle to support his family through bigotry and other challenges in being an Italian immigrant, Tom Golisano learned early on the value of thinking outside the box and not letting perception sway your view of reality. Now, for the first time, Golisano shares the political shenanigans, behind-the-scenes stories, significant characters from his remarkable life, and key insights to thrive in your career.

In Diversity, Inc., award-winning journalist Pamela Newkirk shines a bright light on the diversity industry, asking the tough questions about what has been effective - and why progress has been so slow. Newkirk highlights the rare success stories, sharing valuable lessons about how other industries can match those gains. But as she argues, despite decades of hand-wringing, costly initiatives, and uncomfortable conversations, organizations have, apart from a few exceptions, fallen far short of their goals.

Tenacity chronicles the evolution of entrepreneur Ron Coury, a major business figure in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the surrounding Western states. As Coury, a former US Marine, climbed the ladder toward his success, he faced a barrage of constraints, including political and police corruption, bribery, coercion, and even death threats. Coury details the struggles he faced and the losses he endured in this eye-opening look behind the curtain of business during the “good ol’ boy” days of Southern Nevada.

Molly McClain tells the remarkable story of Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932), an American newspaperwoman, feminist, suffragist, abolitionist, and social reformer who used her fortune to support women’s education, the labor movement, and public access to science, the arts, and education.

Private foundations have been the dynamo of social change since their invention at the beginning of the last century. Yet just over 10 percent of the public knows they even exist; and for those who are aware of them, as well as even those who seek grants from them, their internal workings remain a complete mystery

If Crazy Rich Asians and a Greek tragedy had a literary offspring, it would be the spitting image of Why Should Guys Have All the Fun? The true story of resolute immigration lawyer and activist Loida Lewis, Why Should Guys Have All the Fun? begins with Loida's adventure-packed Philippine upbringing. A torrid love affair with brilliant, irascible financier Reginald Lewis follows, as does regal living in Manhattan and Paris, and gut-wrenching loss, all before Loida shockingly commandeers a multibillion-dollar, multinational conglomerate and leads it with aplomb.

Patented in 1917, Piggly Wiggly was by far the most influential self-service store of the early twentieth century. Before 1940 it was the only self-service chain with a national distribution network, but it was neither the first nor the only version. Beyond Piggly Wiggly reveals the importance of Piggly Wiggly in the invention of self-service and goes beyond the history of a single firm to explore the role of small business entrepreneurs who invented the first self-service stores in a grassroots social process.

Stuckey's, a roadside oasis for generations of travelers along America's highways, fell into disrepair after decades of outside ownership. When Stephanie Stuckey, granddaughter of Stuckey's founder, is offered the chance to buy the business, she takes it, seeing something that isn't apparent in the bleak financial statements: an emotional connection that she and generations of road trippers had with the brand.

Working in Denmark might seem straightforward for Americans: Danes speak excellent English, and Denmark is a great place to do business. Infrastructure is good, corruption is minimal, innovation is respected, and business structures are flexible. Still, many Americans put a foot wrong - often by being too energetic, too upbeat, too aggressive, too American.

1976. A 22-year-old Japanese American woman enters the management ranks of a major corporation and encounters...just what you'd expect. Sexism. Misogyny. Racial bias. And she breaks barriers anyway. From the moment Elaine Koyama was hired as a management trainee at agri-business giant Cargill, Inc., she found herself entangled in the endless fight to wedge herself through the doors the women's movement opened.