Business Biography

It's an axiom of business that great companies grow their revenues and profits year after year. Yet quietly, under the radar, a small number of companies have rejected the pressure of endless growth to focus on more satisfying business goals. Goals like being great at what they do, creating a great place to work, providing great customer service, making great contributions to their communities, and finding great ways to lead their lives. In Small Giants, veteran journalist Bo Burlingham takes us deep inside 14 such remarkable companies.

In this engaging, witty, and inspirational memoir, Chrishell Stause shares her story of living an unconventional childhood in small-town Kentucky marked by periods of homelessness, family addiction struggles, and dreams of one day being on a daytime soap, all while managing the local Dairy Queen. Through resilience and grit, she overcame obstacles and pushed past every barrier in her path to become one of the most envied luxury realtors in Los Angeles and buzzworthy cast members in reality TV.

Imagine a job where you work four days a week and earn as much as the CEO. You also get full benefits, a gym membership, free lunch, and unlimited time off, no questions asked. Hard-won profits don’t just end up in the CEO’s pocket—they’re distributed equally among all employees. The company even buys you your very own car. It sounds too good to be true, but this is the reality at Tunnel Vision, the clothing company that Madeline Pendleton built from the ground up.

A book of being, entitled The Ultimate Coach. Who would I need to be to be a more loving person? Who would I need to be to be a more effective parent? Who would I need to be to create a level of confidence that is remarkable? I promise you that if you listen to this book with the intention of expanding your state of being, you will do exactly that. Your experience will be remarkable. Who you are being is everything. Loving you. Be blessed. Be you.

Traditionally, the renowned All Blacks and those charged with guiding them have kept their rules of engagement close to their chests. However now, New Zealand Rugby has agreed to open their doors to rugby writer Peter Bills to consider the reasons behind their dominance of the world game in the build-up towards the Lions Series in 2017 and Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan. Through this audiobook, Peter Bills draws on case studies and interviews of officials, coaches and players as well as people involved in all elements of rugby right across New Zealand.

The Hiltons is a sweeping saga of the success-and excess-of an iconic American family. Demanding and enigmatic, patriarch Conrad Hilton's visionary ideas and unyielding will established the model for the modern luxury hotel industry. But outside the boardroom, Conrad struggled with emotional detachment, failed marriages, and conflicted Catholicism.

Steven A. Cohen changed Wall Street. He and his fellow pioneers of the hedge fund industry didn’t lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through financial speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than not.

One of Silicon Valley’s most audacious chaos monkeys is Antonio García Martínez. After stints on Wall Street and as CEO of his own startup, García Martínez joined Facebook’s nascent advertising team. Forced out in the wake of an internal product war over the future of the company’s monetization strategy, García Martínez eventually landed at rival Twitter. In Chaos Monkeys, this gleeful contrarian unravels the chaotic evolution of social media and online marketing and reveals how it is invading our lives and shaping our future.

At 95, the legendary Mel Brooks continues to set the standard for comedy across television, film, and the stage. Now, for the first time, this EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner shares his story in his own words.

Hugh van Cuylenburg was a primary school teacher volunteering in northern India when he had a life-changing realisation: despite the underprivileged community the children were from, they were remarkably positive. By contrast, back in Australia Hugh knew that all too many children struggled with depression, social anxieties and mental illness. His own little sister had been ravaged by anorexia nervosa. How was it that young people he knew at home, who had food, shelter, friends and a loving family, struggled with their mental health, while these kids seemed so contented and resilient?

When André de Ruyter took over as Eskom CEO in January 2020, he quickly realised why it was considered the toughest job in South Africa. Aside from neglected equipment, ageing power stations and an eroded skills base, he discovered that Eskom was crippled by corruption on a staggering scale. De Ruyter takes the listener inside the boardrooms and government meetings where South Africa’s future is shaped, with ministers often pulling in conflicting directions, and candidly reflects on his three years at the power utility.

The definitive history, packed with untold stories, of one of America’s most controversial and powerful companies: Facebook. Based on hundreds of interviews from inside and outside Facebook, Levy’s sweeping narrative of incredible entrepreneurial success and failure digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.

Before he conceived of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk flexed his control and influence during his unprecedented, $44 billion buyout of Twitter. This is the stunning true story of how Musk managed to upend the world's largest free speech platform through sheer, unilateral force—and what that means for the protection of power in the modern age.

An enthralling historical narrative filled with critical leadership insights that will be of interest to a wide range of listeners - including those in government, business, education, and the arts - Forged in Crisis, by celebrated Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn, spotlights five masters of crisis: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, President Abraham Lincoln, legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.

On any given day, thousands of devoted people clip into their bikes and have their lives changed by Tunde Oyeneyin. From her platform in a Peloton studio, she encourages riders with her trademark blend of positivity, empathy, and motivational “Tunde-isms,” to push themselves to their limits both on and off the bike. Now, fans and readers everywhere can learn about her personal journey, and discover how they too can “live a life of purpose, on purpose” with Speak, a memoir-manifesto-guide to life inspired by her immensely popular Instagram Live series of the same name.

As one of the world's top salespeople for the Mary Kay Corporation, Gloria Mayfield Banks passionately inspires other independent consultants not just about sales, but also about leadership and how to achieve a balanced life that works for them. But life for Gloria didn't start out with success. Quantum Leaps shares how she overcame both personal and professional obstacles to achieve her dream one day at a time.

Join self-made billionaire David Green, founder of America's craft store giant Hobby Lobby, as he shares the key to building a powerful legacy: Generosity. In Giving It All Away...and Getting It All Back Again, Green unpacks time-tested principles that will help you reap the benefits of generosity for multiple generations to come. In 1970, David Green began making picture frames in his garage. With hard work, he and his wife, Barbara, turned that humble beginning into the world's largest privately owned arts-and-crafts retailer.

The Rothschild Legacy: Power, Wealth, and Influence takes listeners on a journey through the fascinating history of one of the most influential and controversial families in the world—the Rothschilds. From their humble beginnings in 18th-century Frankfurt to their rise as banking giants, the Rothschild family has long been synonymous with immense wealth, power, and global influence.

Toutes les leçons de l'homme qui a fait rayonner l'enchantement. Robert Iger a dédié sa carrière à Disney : en quarante-cinq ans, dont quinze à la tête de l'entreprise, il en a fait le plus grand groupe audiovisuel au monde et l'a guidée à travers une période particulièrement compétitive et riche en bouleversements technologiques. Dans "Leçons de leadership créatif", il revient sur son parcours, ses succès, les obstacles qu'il a surmontés et les principes qui l'ont toujours guidé.

Once the poster girl for doing it all, after she had her first child, Tiffany Dufu struggled to accomplish everything she thought she needed to in order to succeed. Like so many driven and talented women who have been brought up to believe that to have it all, they must do it all, Dufu began to feel that achieving her career and personal goals was an impossibility. Eventually, she discovered the solution: letting go. In Drop the Ball, Dufu recounts how she learned to reevaluate expectations, shrink her to-do list, and meaningfully engage the assistance of others.