3 comments about They Made It!: How Chinese, French, German, Indian, Iranian, Israeli and other foreign born entrepreneurs contributed to high tech innovation in the Silicon Valley, the US and Overseas..

1. As the facilitator of one of Silicon Valley key Executive Network, Dr Angelika Blendstrup was able to interview some of the key leaders of the Silicon Valley, the most dynamic business technology center of the world. This book brings us into the brain, heart and soul of successful men and women, and by extension shows us how we can ourselves reach outstanding achievements. A must-read book for all high-tech entrepreneurs and executives to-be.



2. Raised by immigrant parents, particularly as an engineer's daughter, I was eager to read the success stories of other foreign born professionals. Dr. Blendstrup's interviews capture the drive and determination of bright and passionate business men and women. This series is perfect for anyone interested in learning practical how-to recipes directly from a varied group of top-notch executives.



3. If you are interested in discovering the human side of some famous Silicon Valley titans, then this book is for you.
   Find out how their education and upbringing shaped their work ethic, learn what success really means for them, get a glimpse of what they sound like as human beings - beyond their public faces.

No comments about Everyone Comes to Elaine's: Forty Years of Movie Stars, All-Stars, Literary Lions, Financial Scions, Top Cops, Politicians, and Power Brokers at the Legendary Hot Spot.

1 comments about Jean Monnet: The First Statesman of Interdependence.

1. 
   The book consists of two parts, part one describes how the European Union developed with a supranational dimension and the role of Monnet in its establishment. It becomes very clear that without the supranational dimension the Union would never have been established and World War III would already have taken place. This first part reads like a novel. In the second part, "The Legacy" the ideas and methods are described that Jean Monnet used to achieve a successful European Union. This review concentrates on the second part.
   It is only possible to present to few of the ideas and methods. The title of the book is interesting, " The First Statesman of Interdependence". Interdependence refers to the fact that significant change in the actions of government can only be achieved by understanding the interdependency between, the prime minister, the other ministers, the bureaucracies of the ministers, the political parties, businessmen, the financial and business community and sometimes trade unions, not of one country but of several countries. Developing a solution requires the participation of these organisations. Monnet describes many different organisation structures for this purpose. All projects had a direct line to the president or prime minister. Monnet always saw to it that a single ministry never took over responsibility as rhat was the "kiss of death" for his type of project. Yet, he recognised that unless you brought the ministries and their bureaucracies along you would fail too.
   Another key factor was the choice of the core team working directly with him. He spent a lot of his time finding the right members of the core team and did not hesitate to reject recommendations of the prime minister and of other ministers.
   One of the methods Monnet used repeatedly was the "balance sheet". The balance sheet was a summary of all the resources material and immaterial necessary to solve a problem. These balance sheets were prepared involving all the persons with power and influence on implementing a solution. The "balance sheet" has the advantage that all organisations involved have to share information. The cabinet can only make an informed decision about priorities and an action plan based on a complete and holistic picture.
   Another important concept was the need of having a powerful central "actionable" idea that appeared self-evident and obvious when presented to persons in power. Monnet spent weeks in talk-shops with a group of extremely bright and argumentative people saying nothing and only listening in the first phase, inserting a few words in the second phase, and directing the discussion in the third and final phase. The formulation of an idea could easily require 30 drafts before presentation. Monnet went never to a meeting without having a draft of what he was proposing in front of him.
   One of the ideas he pursued was that war in Europe could only be avoided by creating a European organisation to which nations operationally delegated a part of their authority. This European organisation has as a consequence a supranational dimension. This led to the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1952 with Jean Monnet at its head. That organisation was the pioneering organisation that led to the European Economic Community or EEC (called Common Market in the UK) in 1956, leading to the European Union (EU) in 1993. I interviewed Jean Monnet in 1954 as a student, very inspiring!
   Monnet believed that the cause of war is that governments pursue policies that they believe are in the national interest without considering the interests of other governments. He considered that people are born with strong egocentric tendencies that lead to nationalistic behaviour of governments. This problem can therefore only be solved by creating an institution that can reconcile conflicts between nations, with sufficient power delegated to it for making decisions that the "sovereign" nations involved accept. Emmanuel Kant was the first one to forcefully formulate this truth in his essay "Perpetual Peace" (1891). This book presents a clear picture how incredibly difficult it is to get nations to delegate some of their authority to an independent supranational organisation.
   The view in Buddhism of human nature is less pessimistic. Buddhists believe that people are born with egocentric and altruistic tendencies and that the ego-centred tendencies can be mastered by training the mind. As a matter of interest, interdependence is also a central concept in Buddhism.
   This book is of great interest to people working in politics, government and for interested NGOs and management consultants. It is also of interest to businessmen that want to understand how a government functions and/or that are looking for ideas for making radical changes in the character of their companies.

5 comments about Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg.

1. Since James Annenberg Levee was my roommate and fraternity brother, I was curious about his famous family. The book is well researched, informative and readable. A great rags to riches saga.



2. Legacy does an accurate job of portraying POP the way he wanted it and believe me, he certainly controlled the content. As one who is most familiar as an insider, I can say that his goal was to build the image of greatness. Yes, Pop, you were great and no matter what the cost. In the end you won. To the family, you know how he was. Gbird if you get this, im still here, faithful as ever, yet still controlled by old walter from the grave.



3. After having read Legacy I had all of my beliefs about the Great Walter Annenberg confirmed. This man is truely a great and magnanimous individual. His donations are really unprecedented and you could say he has done more for education than any other American. I truely love this man. As an alum of the Peddie school I was astounded by his massive gift in 1993 and I do hope his actions will inspire other alumni to make similiar or even larger gifts.



4. In this engaging and wonderfully written biography, Ogden describes with consummate skill the origins, careers, hardships and accomplishments of two remarkable men, Walter Annenberg and his father, Moses. Facinating insights on business dealings (sometimes hardball), White House maneuverings (not always exemplary), politics, government, social discimination and class structure in America from the end of the 19th century to the present abound. The childhoods and early family environments of both Annenbergs (quite different for each) are well described. The complexity of the father/son relationship (partly due to very different temperaments) and its continuing influence long after Moses Annenberg's death in 1942 is especially poignant. One need not have a special interest in media empires to find this book engrossing; an interest in the capacity to endure, adapt creatively, and prevail in stunning and magnanimous fashion is quite sufficient. This is a distinctly American 20th century story of the highest order.



5. Just finished Legacy after a whirlwind of reading. Couldn't put it down. Each chapter of this brilliant biography flowed into the next. Author Ogden has done a magnificent job of weaving this father/son story together, managing to illustrate much of the American century through their compelling (and inspring) tale. Reads like a great novel. I will be recommending Legacy to everyone I know.

No comments about Bearly Believable: My Part in the Paddington Bear Story.

5 comments about Bill Gates Speaks: Insight from the World's Greatest Entrepreneur.

1. Bill Gates Speaks provides plenty of insight including numerous pertinent quotations. Those with little knowledge of Gates yet an interest in his views will find value in this book; however, I struggle to rate this book above three stars as it is merely a scattered collection of thoughts as oppose to a well organized account. With that said, I would also be hard pressed to rate this book negatively as the subject attracts intrigue on its own right and Lowe appears to be at least both informed and well-researched on the topic.
   
   If you have a keen interest in Bill Gates, I would read this book; otherwise, I would search for something a little more engrossing.



2. This is one of a series of books that covers highly successful, highly visible individuals and how they got that way. These books are targeted at school age teens to inspire them to follow their paths for success. The author seems to cover the life stories of Bill Gates and adds quotes where appropriate to boost the storyline. There are occasional segments on subjects related to Gates as shown in the Amazon's "Look in" review. It's an easy read with only 230 pages. If you read any of the other books such as "Gates" or "Hard Drive" you'll get the feeling of reading this book before. Since the work isn't original and seems to heavily reference other books I give it 3 stars. The only question I have is whether the author actual sat down with Bill Gates and talked to him or did she really just go to the library, the Internet, etc. to get info on the book. As a first book on Bill Gates life, it's still a good read for young adults looking to be inspired.



3. It's an easy to read story of Gates, but there's nothing new here. In fact, the whole book is made up of quotes from other books and articles. You can't really tell if they are taken out of context or not. There's just not much original stuff here.



4. I like to be told a story. Although the book starts with a good story on how Bill Gates got started, it quickly digresses. This book is an accumulation of facts and boring accounts about Bill Gates and Microsoft. It never gets into the meat of things. I would have liked to have read more about the litigations against Microsoft. Maybe some more about Nescape's lawsuit. It mentions very little about the Antitrust lawsuit that I was looking forward to learning about. Instead we get quotes from Bill Gates that do not enhance the book, but instead interrupt it. The author references websites about Microsoft's and the government's claims about the lawsuit. It's like the author got lazy. Don't waste your money on this book. A very big dissapointment!



5. While this book was well written, I was dissapointed with what I learned about Bill Gates. There was not enough detail and the book was pieced together from a number of different quotes, which is ok for many biographies but the extent of the number of quotes compared to the varied sources did not complete the picture.

   The books cover claimed 'Insight From The Worlds Greatest Entrepreneur' but I did not feel an insight.

   Despite the above, if you like Bill Gates and want to learn a little more about him, I recommend this book. There are some fun stories and some things to be learned about the man. It is put together nicely, it makes a high claim but does not completely deliver on this claim.

2 comments about Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash.

1. This is an interesting book on a fascinating family. H.L. Hunt was truly one of a kind. At on time he was the richest man in the world and amazingly had three seperate families. His life and that of his children is a case study in Texas Oil Wealth. The Hunts are to Dallas, what the Rockefellers are to New York or the Cabots are to Boston, their name alone means wealth in Dallas. It a shame that all of their money did not create a university or endow a great medical facility, instead they created posh hotels like The Crescent and The Mansion or redevelopment projects like Reunion, all of these ventures where for profit and though they helped retain Dallas' posh image, they really did not effect the average Dallasite. The first family brothers trying to corner the silver market was the height of huburis and they paid a steep price for their arrogance. Ray Hunt of the second family has definitly done the best of the children, he had much less money to work with, but he did the best with what he had and he is worth billions and is the wealthiest of the Hunts, he would have made the old man proud.



2. This is a good history of H.L. Hunt as well as some of his
   children.Hunt turned a wildcat oil venture into a fortune of several billion dollars.His oil company eventually became Placid Oil.His early days in the oil patch up until the present are given excellent coverage.You are also able to read about
   some of his sons who also did well.Lamar was the owner of the
   Dallas Texans who became the Kansas City Cheifs.Nelson Bunker
   Hunt attempted to corner the silver market that eventually
   crashed.His daughter Carolyn became a hotel tycoon.You are also
   able to read about his son from the other family Ray who also
   became a business leader in Dallas.This is a very good book
   that you will enjoy reading.

No comments about The Making of McPaper: The Inside Story of How USA Today Made It.

5 comments about Disney.

1. Catch up on your knowledge, or review what you know. Fun series of all that's Disney.



2. This 213 page book is just full of an endless supply of full color photos of everything Disney for the past 100 years. You'll learn all about Walt's early life and how his ideas created worldwide Disney worlds. Each chapter covers a decade from 1901 to 2001 !! Many of these pictures are archival and never made available before. The book provides many memories for "children" of all ages. It's a keeper. Enjoy !



3. This is a great book about Disney Company. It goes chronologically from 1901 to 1999 and beyond. Every event in the company's history is put in the book, but without much detail.
   Since he maintains Disney Archives, Dave Smith could have done a litle better, like he did with Disney's Encyclopedia.



4. This book was excellent! It had terrific pictures and it told from 1901 when Walt was born until 2001. It is a great keepsake. I purchased mine at Walt Disney World during the 100 Years of Magic celebration.



5. I really enjoyed this book. It is packed with lots of great photographs and artwork from Walt Disney and the Disney Company. It also has a really nice overview of the life of Walt Disney and the work of the Disney Company in text.

   I appreciated the organization of the book. The book is arranged chronologically, which helped me to understand the flow of events better. This book has a very upbeat, positive tone and paints a very bright and exciting future for the Disney Company.

   This book does not contain nearly as much information about Walt Disney as some of the biographies that I have read, but I don't think that was the goal of this book. This book does a very nice job of chronicling the art and the work of this great American icon and then continues the chronology with the work of the Disney Company in the post Walt era.

   This book starts with very early Disney and takes the reader all the way through to Fantasia 2000. This is an excellent coffee table book. I highly recommended it to anyone that loves Walt, his work and the continuing work of the Disney Company.

1 comments about Clash of the Titans: How the Unbridled Ambition of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch Has Created Global Empires That Control What We Read and Watch.

1. Rupert vs. Ted! Ted vs. Rupert! Great, easy to read narrative of the most modern media battle. If you want to know about the ideology and shenanigans behind Mr. Fair & BalancedTM, this is the book.