Ford Library Blog

Midler, Paul. Poorly made in China : an insider’s account of the tactics behind China’s production game. Wiley, 2009.

Paul Midler could be said to be biting the hand that feeds him. After all, he has built a lucrative career as a China-based manufacturing consultant, using his expert knowledge and insight into Chinese history, language, and culture. And yet, he has penned a work that, while frank in its admiration for many Chinese cultural idiosyncrasies, is also sharply critical of both the questionable ethical basis on which the Chinese have built their gargantuan export economy, and the impatience and greed of American businesses in rushing to embrace the perceived advantages of having their product lines manufactured in China.

In the 240 smoothly written and eminently readable pages of Poorly Made In China, Mr. Midler recounts his daily experiences in creating and managing relationships between Chinese factory owners and American importers, giving us example after example of why the Chinese, in his opinion, win at every hand dealt at the negotiating table of price and quality. Thus the importer and the U.S. consumer often have a good chance of ending up with a product that either degrades in quality over time or increases in cost without benefit to the consumer, or both.

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The end of the Bernie Madoff story has yet to be written, but books are already rolling off the presses, including five books in the month of August alone.

Here is a list of titles just purchased by the Ford Library last week.

• Betrayal: The life and lies of Bernie Madoff
  by Andrew Kirtzman
  Written like a novel, this book is the most readable of the lot, and gives readers an inside look at Madoff, his family and the investors.
• Too Good to be True: The rise and fall of Bernie Madoff
  by Erin Arvedlund
  A well researched book by an investigative journalist, who first warned investors about Madoff in Barrons in 2001, providing the clear explanations about how hedge funds and Madoff’s scam worked.
• Madoff with the Money
  by Jerry Oppenheimer
  A portrait of Madoff as a flawed man, as revealed through anecdotes from his family, friends and business associates.
• Catastrophe: The story of Bernard L. Madoff, the man who swindled the world
  by Deborah and Gerald Strober
  One of the first books about Madoff,  published by two historians in March 2009, is a chronicle of the weeks immediately before and after Madoff’s arrest.
• Bernard Madoff: Masterminding a billion dollar fraud
  by Filiquarian Publishing, LLC
  A summary of news articles about the Madoff scandal.

Tip: If any of these books are currently checked out, you can recall them by clicking the “Get this Title” text in the catalog record when you follow the links above. More about recalls …

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

If you have seen the documentary The Corporation you may remember Ray Anderson, owner of the carpet company Interface.  He retooled the company to take advantage of sustainable business practices after reading Paul Hawken’s book The Ecology of Commerce.

He has a new TED talk up on the business logic of sustainability.

Mason, Matt. The pirate’s dilemma : how youth culture is reinventing capitalism.. Free Press, 2008.

We are living in a time when music and art can be infinitely reproduced and instantaneously distributed all over the planet without cost. This book is about a new set of market conditions that are emerging, where piracy is just another business model and where remixing is a tool used to create change. Boundaries are coming down. Technology has removed old restrictions on new ideas. The Pirates Dilemma is essentially about sharing and using information in new ways.

Author Matt Mason is unconcerned with file sharing and downloading. File sharing sites make an abundance of music available from aspiring musicians and niche artists. He cites a study that shows downloading has boosted CD sales, and claims that file sharing has attracted a new type of music fan. And iTunes made the music industry more democratic.

This book is an interesting read, but it should not be attempted by readers who don’t know P. Diddy from 50-Cent, or Sex Pistols from the Ramones. Author Matt Mason makes his points through dozens of stories involving cultural icons, most of them from the music industry.

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

The white tiger: a novel by Aravind Adiga. Free Press, 2008.

Aravind Adiga’s first novel was requested by several students, who said it was a story about an entrepreneur in India. It turns out that White Tiger is not about business. It is a ruthless portrait of contemporary India.

The main character begins life in poverty and deprivation in a village in northern India. He dreams of leaving his town and finds a job as a driver/servant for wealthy landowners who move to Delhi. Eventually, he commits a brutal murder to free himself from bondage and to obtain the capital to begin a business.

Behind the story of the Indian economic miracle, with glass office towers, luxury apartments and gigantic malls, is another story of those whom the economic miracle is leaving behind. This is the story of social injustice for the poor and uneducated, and about corruption and cruelty in all levels of society.

Some people find this book to be darkly humorous — this reviewer did not. Nevertheless, the novel is a fascinating read. White Tiger won the 2008 Man Booker prize.

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

A recent episode of PBS’ show NOW examined the role the credit ratings agencies had in the current economic crisis. You can watch this episode on the PBS web site. The site also has links to documents from their investigation as well as comments on the future of the free market from James K. Galbraith, David Rothkopf, and Robert A.G. Monks.

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.

Peter W. Bernstein and Annalyn Swan, Editors. All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 make — and spend — their fortunes. Knopf, 2007.

Prominent editors and business writers provide an entertaining view into the lives of the wealthiest Americans of the past quarter century. After discussing the personal qualities necessary to become a multimillionaire, the book describes how fortunes are made, how the superrich spend their money, and how heirs enhance or squander their fortunes.

Many individual stories are included, such as profiles of Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffett, as well as the philanthropy of Ted Turner and Bill Gates. Lavish descriptions of how the rich live and lurid details about family feuds within the dynasties make for entertaining reading.

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

April is Earth Month at Duke. Also, the 8th Annual MBA International Retreat will be held on Energy & the Environment (May 31st-June 1st).

See these new titles at the Ford Library on energy, the environment, and sustainability issues. As always, you can click on any title below to check availability or to place a hold.

• Saving Energy, Growing Jobs: How Environmental Protection Promotes Economic Growth, Profitability, Innovation and Competition by David. B. Goldstein
• Carbon Strategies: How Leading Companies are Reducing Their Climate Change Footprint by Andrew J. Hoffman
• Terra Incognita:A Navigation Aid for Energy Leaders by Christopher E.H. Ross and Lane E. Sloan
• Managing Green Issues by Tom Curtin
• Harvard Business Review on Green Business Strategy by Harvard Business School Press
• Markets and the Environment by Nathaniel O. Keohane and Sheila M. Olmstead
• The Commonwealth of Life: Economics for a Flourishing Earth, 2nd Edition by by Peter G. Brown
• Sustainability in Manufacturing: Recovery of Resources in Product and Material Cycles edited by Gunther Seliger
• Future Energy: How the New Oil Industry Will Change People, Politics, and Portfolios by Bill Paul
• Green Seduction: Money, Business, and the Environment by Bill Streever
• Business, Ethics, and the Environment: Imagining a Sustainable Future (Basic Ethics in Action)by Joseph R. Des Jardins
• Cut Carbon, Grow Profits: Business Strategies for Managing Climate Change and Sustainability edited by Kenny Tang and Ruth Yeoh
• Organizations and the Sustainability Mosaic: Crafting Long-Term Ecological and Societal Solutions edited by Sanjay Sharma, Mark Starik and Bryan Husted

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The Ford Library has started off the Spring Semester by adding lots of great new books. Come check out our New Books section for even more titles than are shown here. We add many new ones every month on a wide variety of business and related topics. (Click on any of the titles below to check availability or to place a hold.)

Business Trends & Events

• From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession by Rakesh Khurana
• World Event Trading: How to Analyze and Profit from Today’s Headlines by Andrew Busch
• Trading Catalysts: How Events Move Markets and Create Trading Opportunities by Robert I. Webb
• Coming Attractions?: Hollywood, High Tech, and the Future of Entertainment by Philip E. Meza
• Speechless: The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace by Bruce Barry
• The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Opportunities by Bernard Baumohl

Finance

• The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America’s Top Traders Jack D. Schwager
• Building Financial Models with Microsoft Excel: A Guide for Business Professionals by K. Scott Proctor
• Forecasting Expected Returned in the Financial Markers by Stephen Satchel

The Environment, Nature, and Natural Resources:

• Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M. Benyus
• Cut Carbon, Grow Profits: Business Strategies for Managing Climate Change and
  Sustainability edited by Dr. Kenny Tang CFA and Ruth Yeoh
• The Commonwealth of Life: Economics for a Flourishing Earth, 2nd Edition by Peter G. Brown
• Terra Incognita: A Navigation Aid for Energy Leaders by Christopher E.H. Ross
  and Lane E. Sloan

Leadership & Ethics*:

• The Moral Leader: Challenges, Insights, and Tools by Sandra J. Sucher
• What Really Matters: Service, Leadership, People, and Values by John Pepper
• Ethics and Business: An Introduction by Kevin Gibson
• The Sentinel CEO: Perspectives on Security, Risk, and Leadership in a Post- 9/11
  World by William G. Parrett
• The Leadership Experience by Richard L. Daft
• Radical Trust: How Today’s Great Leaders Convert People to Partners by Joe Healey
• Leadership Communication by Deborah J. Barrett

* Many leadership and ethics titles are part of the library’s Dorothea F. Peterjohn Leadership Collection

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