Business Fiction

Most organizations have the same weakness. There is a gap between their careful plans and what happens at the point where the sales force meets the customer. In his 25 years combating profit-killers for Fortune 500 companies, Gregg Crawford has seen this again and again. Companies have almost everything they need to succeed. All that's missing is one final connection: the last link.

Funny Business is based around the theme of - what else? - humor, and if you’re familiar with Jon and the Guys Read Library, you already know what you’re in store for: 10 hilarious stories from some of the funniest writers around. Before you’re through, you’ll meet a teenage mummy; a kid desperate to take a dip in the world’s largest pool of chocolate milk; a homicidal turkey; parents who hand over their son’s room to a biker; and more.

A large software-intensive project, called FPP, that has been running late since day 1, but now, suddenly, needs to launch on an impossibly early date, or else. You feel their pain, and their joy, as they battle problem after problem until, slowly, torturously, they rediscover the few - but fundamental - principles underlying successful commercial software development.

When a young boy finds a mysterious object in the creek near his home, his parents launch an investigation that will eventually link the ancient object to such remarkable figures as George Washington Carver, Oskar Shindler, Joan of Arc, and Alfred Vanderbilt. Separate pieces of the artifact, with different but similar inscriptions, shape the lives of those who possess the object.

Ryan Blair knows about building a business from the ground up. Like many entrepreneurs he had no formal business education. But he had great survival instincts, tenacity, and, above all, a "nothing to lose" mindset.Blair's middle-class childhood came to an abrupt end when his abusive father succumbed to drug addiction and abandoned the family. Blair and his mother moved to a bad neighborhood, and soon he was in and out of juvenile detention, joining a gang just to survive. Then his mother fell in love with a successful entrepreneur who took Ryan under his wing.

Photojournalist Abi Logan is finally ready to put her hectic career on hold and set down roots in the heart of the Scottish countryside. Studying the business and art of distilling whisky at Abbey Glen and volunteering at the Shepherd’s Rest women’s shelter in her spare time seem a surefire way to find the peace and stability she craves. It’s also the logical way to take her mind off her personal life. Abi’s business partner, Grant MacEwan, is facing a career-threatening disability, and as much as Abi longs to be there for him, he seems to prefer the company of a rival.

You're never too young to start! In Escape the Rat Race, you’ll find out: How "working to learn, not to earn" paves the way to money-making opportunities. The basics of making money by creating assets. How to make money work hard for you, so that you don't have to work so hard for money.

"Vous souhaitez venger un affront sans vous salir les mains ? Nous avons la solution ! Des milliers de clients satisfaits dans le monde entier." Tout le monde a ses petites rancunes, rien de plus humain. Mais pour passer à l'acte sans prendre de risques inconsidérés, mieux vaut faire appel à un professionnel expérimenté et discret. Hugo Hamelin a une idée visionnaire : créer une société de vengeance à la carte, un service sur mesure destiné à laver affronts, camouflets, coups bas et autres vexations.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs are on the warpath in the village of Balfour, and the local shop owners fear that their financial sins are about to catch up with them. Meanwhile, Abbey Glen’s new Whisky Masterclass is a resounding success...until the latest group of students starts to drop dead in the night and Abi Logan fears that what they are really offering is a Masterclass in Murder. Missing money, dead bodies, and a whistle blower who may not be as virtuous as he appears leave Abi scrambling for clues in the dark. Will Abi find the killer before the inevitable happens?

What was she doing here? Hyattown had changed very little in the years Vanessa Sexton had been away. In some ways her high school sweetheart, Brady Tucker, hadn't changed much either - he was still lean, athletic, rugged... But the once reckless boy had become a solid, dependable man. He'd stood her up on the most important night of her life; could she ever trust him again?

Jason Steadman is a thirty-year-old sales executive living in Boston and working for an electronics giant, a competitors to Sony and Panasonic. He's a witty, charismatic guy who's well liked at the office, but he lacks the "killer instinct" necessary to move up the corporate ladder. To the chagrin of his ambitious wife, it looks as if his career has hit a ceiling. Jason's been sidelined. But all that will change one evening when Jason meets Kurt Semko, a former Special Forces officer just back from Iraq.

Courageous, insightful, brave, and characteristically authentic, Let Love Have the Last Word shares Common’s own unique and personal stories of the people and experiences that have led to a greater understanding of love and all it has to offer. It is a powerful call to action for a new generation of open hearts and minds, one that is sure to resonate for years to come.

Enquêter sur un adultère ? Ce n'est pas vraiment le rêve de Samson et Delilah, les détectives de l'Agence de Recherche des Vallons. Seulement voilà, la demande vient de Nancy Taylor, une femme charmante à laquelle on ne peut rien refuser. L'infidèle, quant à lui, est le maire, mais aussi un respectable homme d'affaires et l'ex-beau-père de Delilah. Diable ! Le duo de détectives va devoir marcher sur des œufs.

In 2004 Philip Delves Broughton abandoned a post as Paris bureau chief of the London Daily Telegraph to join 900 other would-be tycoons on the Harvard Business School's plush campus. With acute and often uproarious candor, he assesses the school's success at teaching the traits it extols as most important in business: leadership, decisiveness, ethical behavior, and work/life balance.

Mad Women is a tell-all account of life in the New York advertising world of the 1960s and '70s from Jane Maas, a female copywriter who succeeded in the primarily male environment portrayed by the hit TV show Mad Men. Fans of the show are dying to know how accurate it is: did people really have that much sex in the office? Were there really three-martini lunches? Were women really second-class citizens? Jane Maas says the answer to all three questions is unequivocally yes....

In a book that's one part prophecy, one part thought experiment, one part manifesto, and one part survival manual, internet impresario and blogging pioneer Jeff Jarvis reverse-engineers Google, the fastest-growing company in history, to discover 40 clear and straightforward rules to manage and live by.

Everyone has warned new-minted realtor Savannah Martin that real estate is a cutthroat business. But Savannah doesn’t think she’s supposed to take the warning literally...until an early morning phone call sends her to an empty house on the "bad" side of town, where she finds herself standing over the butchered body of a competitor, face to face with the boy her mother always warned her about.

Thanks to Winnie's new cider shop, Smythe Orchards is out of the red and folks can get their fix of the produce and other delectable products they love all year round. The locals are even booking the shop for events, including a June wedding! Winnie couldn't be happier to see the barn filled to the rafters for the big bash - until her doting ex, Hank, is caught in a heated argument with the groom. Winnie plans to scold Hank after the party, but spots him running off instead. And when the groom turns up dead, apparently hit by the honeymoon getaway car, Hank is the main suspect.

Damion West was the boy who stole my young heart and then broke it. That was a long time ago though and I'm not a girl susceptible to hot boys with big egos who just happen to kiss well anymore. He's the heir to West Enterprises, and notoriously loud on social media. Everyone knows Damion West. Just not like I do. But that's another story better left untold.

Bata: shoemaker to the world is the story of the man, his family and their business. Eloquently told and rich in anecdotes, it traces the road from the Bata family's humble beginnings in a Moravian village to Tom's undisputed claim to the title of shoemaker to the world. His entrepreneurial upbringing, his fight for control of the family enterprise, his unique partnership with his wife and the way he went about implementing his business philosophy add up to one of the great success stories of the twentieth century.