How Innovation Works: Serendipity, Energy and the Saving of Time by Matt Ridley

$40.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

Ridley is spot-on when it comes to the vital ingredients for success' Sir James Dyson Building on his bestseller The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley chronicles the history of innovation, and how we need to change our thinking on the subject. Innovation is the main event of the modern age, the reason we e xperience both dramatic improvements in our living standards and unsettling changes in our society. It is innovation that will shape the twenty-first century. Yet innovation remains a mysterious process, poorly understood by policy makers and businessmen alike. Matt Ridley argues that we need to see innovation as an incremental, bottom-up, fortuitous process that happens as a direct result of the human habit of exchange, rather than an orderly, top-down process developing according to a plan. Innovation is crucially different from invention, because it is the turning of inventions into things of practical and affordable use to people. It speeds up in some sectors and slows down in others. It is always a collective, collaborative phenomenon, involving trial and error, not a matter of lonely genius. It still cannot be modelled properly by economists, but it can easily be discouraged by politicians. Far from there being too much innovation, we may be on the brink of an innovation famine. Ridley derives these and other lessons from the lively stories of scores of innovations - from steam engines to search engines - how they started and why they succeeded or failed. Review: 'An insightful and charming exploration of questions that range from the truly profound (How does our species capture energy to stave off decay and death?) to the merely fascinating (Why did it take us so long to invent the wheeled suitcase?)' Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor, Harvard University, and author of Enlightenment Now 'From the Stone Age to smartphones and from farming to fission, Matt Ridley demonstrates with a plethora of examples how innovation has changed and, for the most part, improved the human condition, despite repeated resistance and frequent failure. Given the freedom of thought that innovation needs, he argues, we can ensure the survival of the planet. We abandon it or constrain it at our peril' Sir Tim Laurence, Chairman of English Heritage 'In this insightful and delightful book, Matt Ridley explores the wondrous causes of innovation, the force that drives our modern economy. He shows that it's a team sport, but one that features many colourful stars. It's a joy to tag along with him as he mines the history of human advances to discover nuggets of useful lessons' Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs 'A compelling case for free enterprise and free trade and the power of serendipity.' Liz Truss MP, Secretary of State for International Trade ...Show more

The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens by Gabriel Zucman

$45.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

We are well aware of the rise of the 1% as the rapid growth of economic inequality has put the majority of the world's wealth in the pockets of fewer and fewer. One much-discussed solution to this imbalance is to significantly increase the rate at which we tax the wealthy. But with an enormous amount of the world's wealth hidden in tax havens in countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands this wealth cannot be fully accounted for and taxed fairly. No one, from economists to bankers to politicians, has been able to quantify exactly how much of the world's assets are currently hidden until now. Gabriel Zucman is the first economist to offer reliable insight into the actual extent of the world's money held in tax havens. And it's staggering. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations, Zucman offers an inventive and sophisticated approach to quantifying how big the problem is, how tax havens work and are organized, and how we can begin to approach a solution. His research reveals that tax havens are a quickly growing danger to the world economy. In the past five years, the amount of wealth in tax havens has increased over 25% there has never been as much money held offshore as there is today. This hidden wealth accounts for at least $7.6 trillion, equivalent to 8% of the global financial assets of households. Fighting the notion that any attempts to vanquish tax havens are futile, since some countries will always offer more advantageous tax rates than others, as well the counter-argument that since the financial crisis tax havens have disappeared, Zucman shows how both sides are actually very wrong. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations he offers an ambitious agenda for reform, focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives of tax havens. Only by first understanding the enormity of the secret wealth can we begin to estimate the kind of actions that would force tax havens to give up their practices. Zucman's work has quickly become the gold standard for quantifying the amount of the world's assets held in havens. In this concise book, he lays out in approachable language how the international banking system works and the dangerous extent to which the large-scale evasion of taxes is undermining the global market as a whole. If we are to find a way to solve the problem of increasing inequality, The Hidden Wealth of Nations is essential reading. ...Show more

The Barefoot Investor for Families: The Only Kids' Money Guide You'll Ever Need by Scott Pape

$35.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

The Barefoot Investor: The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need is a phenomenon, sprinting through one million copies to become one of the best selling Australian books ever. Why is it so successful? It's simple, funny and practical. And it has changed people's lives. The eagerly anticipated follow-up, Th e Barefoot Investor for Families, sticks to the same script. It's aimed fairly and squarely at parents, grandparents, and basically anyone who read that book and said: 'Why the hell wasn't I taught this years ago?' Scott lays out ten money milestones kids need to have nailed before they leave home, and it's all structured around one family 'money meal' each week (so roughly 20 minutes). If you follow the roadmap, with tailor-made lessons for each age group, your kids will know how to do things like: Learn the life-changing value of hard work Set up a fee-free bank account (or jam jars!) Go on a Treasure Hunt around the house, and sell some of their 'stuff' second-hand Save your parents $100 on household bills Even ... Learn to cook at least two low-cost, delicious, nutritious meals from scratch. Scott's mission is to make sure your kids are financially strong so they never, ever get sucked into the traps that middle-aged bankers have devised to rob them of their money and their confidence. There are only ten things every kid needs to know about money, and you can teach them over dinner, once a week. It's that simple. Start now - it's never too early or too late. ...Show more

The Trick: Why Some People Can Make Money and Other People Can't by William Leith

$33.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

Some people can make money. Other people can't. It's a thought that makes William Leith wake up in cold sweats. He doesn't know why it makes him feel anxious. After all, money isn't real. We created it. Humans did. It's our masterpiece. But the desire for it is killing us. It is this dilemma that sets W illiam Leith off on an adventure into the bizarre, morally dubious yet highly desirable world of the mega-rich. He spends a day with the real-life Wolf of Wall Street who, not content with his hundreds of millions, devised a fraud so he could make hundreds of millions more. He visits a Baroque mansion where a Russian half-billionaire lives alone with his butler. He tours the estate of Felix Dennis, the maverick tycoon who commissioned an avenue of statues to tell the story of his life. He flies to private islands on private jets, meets private men in private clubs, experiencing the dizzy highs of a life without limits o but all it does is give him crippling anxiety. Throughout it all he asks himself- what makes these people wealthy? And how come I'm not? ...Show more

Be Your Own Boss and Succeed - The 7 Qualities of a Successful Small Business Owner by John Angell

$25.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

The Post-Snowden Era: Mass Surveillance and Privacy in New Zealand by Kathleen Kuehn

$15.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law | Series: BWB Texts Ser. | Reading Level: Very Good

Only sustained public pressure can prevent the complicit submission and cultural amnesia that seems to follow every new revelation about surveillance in everyday life. Recent revelations about the nature and extent of global surveillance programmes have shocked many. But what are their implications in t he long-term - and for New Zealand? Mapping New Zealand's role in international intelligence gathering from World War Two to the present day, Kathleen Kuehn asks probing questions about the behaviour of both the state and corporations in our current 'surveillance society'. Ultimately these questions force us to confront the way we value our individual privacy and civil liberties, for - as we often hear - why should any of this matter if we have nothing to hide? ...Show more

Late Love: Sometimes Doctors Need Saving as Much as Their Patients (BWB Texts) by Glenn Colquhoun

$15.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law | Series: BWB Texts | Reading Level: Very Good

'Most of the time I have no idea what to do with them or what to say in response to them.' Award-winning New Zealand poet Glenn Colquhoun is also a doctor who works with struggling young people at the margins, painfully aware of the limits of his role. In this BWB Text he offers penetrating insight int o the little he feels he is able to achieve as a GP and youth worker. It is, he says, a song of redemption. 'Doctors are pompous. It is one of our strengths. But when I listen to a patient for any length of time I am reduced. They seem much more expert in their lives than I - and any desire for me to be glib shrinks away.' Colquhoun's account builds to radical proposals for New Zealand's primary health care, designed to reconnect our health system with the more vulnerable and less resourced parts of our society. ...Show more

Bezonomics: How Amazon Is Changing Our Lives, and What the World's Companies Are Learning from It by Brian Dumaine

$40.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

Amazon is the business story of the decade. Jeff Bezos, the richest man on the planet, has built one of the most efficient wealth-creation machines in history. Like a giant squid, Amazon's tentacles are squeezing industry after industry and, in the process, upsetting the state of technology, t he economy, job creation and society at large. So pervasive is Amazon's impact that business leaders in almost every sector need to understand how this force of nature operates and how they can respond to it. Saying you can ignore Jeff Bezos is equivalent to saying you could ignore Henry Ford or Steve Jobs in the early years of Ford and Apple. These titans monumentally changed how we do business, redefining the rules on a global scale. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the new disruptor on the block. He has created a 21st century algorithm for business and societal disruption. He has turned the retail industry inside out, is swiftly dominating cloud computing, media and advertising, and now has his sights trained on every other domain where money changes hands and business is transacted. But the principles by which Bezos has achieved his dominance - customer obsession, extreme innovation and long-term management, all supported by artificial intelligence turning a virtuous-cycle 'flywheel' - are now being borrowed and replicated. 'Bezonomics' is for some a goldmine, for others a threat, for still others a life-shaping force, whether they're in business or not. Brian Dumaine's Bezonomics answers the fundamental question: how are Amazon and its imitators affecting the way we live, and what can we learn from them? ...Show more

The Fix by Michelle King

$35.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

"A passionate, practical roadmap for addressing inequality and finally making our workplaces work for women" Arianna Huffington Foreword by Gillian Anderson and Jennifer Nadel  For years, we've been telling women that in order to succeed at work, they have to change themselves first - lean in,&nb sp;negotiate like a man, don't act too nicely or you won't get the corner office. But after sixteen years working with major Fortune 500 companies as a gender equality expert, Michelle King has realised one simple truth - the tired advice of fixing women doesn't fix anything. The truth is that workplaces are gendered; they were designed by men for men. Because of this, most organisations unconsciously carry the idea of an 'ideal worker', typically a straight, white man who doesn't have to juggle work and family commitments. Based on King's research and exclusive interviews with major companies and thought leaders, The Fix reveals why denying the fact that women are held back just because they are women - what she calls gender denial - is the biggest obstacle holding women back at work and outlines the hidden sexism and invisible barriers women encounter at work every day. Women who speak up are seen as pushy. Women who ask for a pay rise are seen as difficult. Women who spend hours networking don't get the same career benefits as men do. Because women don't look like the ideal worker and can't behave like the ideal worker, they are passed over for promotions, paid less, and pushed out of the workforce, not because they aren't good enough, but because they aren't men. In this fascinating and empowering book, King outlines the invisible barriers that hold women back at all stages of their careers, and provides readers with a clear set of takeaways to thrive despite the sexist workplace, as they fight for change from within. Gender equality is not about women, and it is not about men - it is about making workplaces work for everyone. Together, we can fix work, not women. ...Show more

Vino Business by Isabelle Saporta

$33.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

"For centuries a bastion of tradition and the jewel in the crown of French viticulture, Bordeaux has in recent years become dogged by controversy, particularly regarding the 2012 classification of the wines of St.-Emilion, the most prestigious appellation of Bordeaux's right bank. St.-Emilion is an area increasingly dominated by big international investors, especially from China, who are keen to speculate on the area's wines and land, some of whose value has increased tenfold in the last decade alone. In the controversial 2012 classification, certain chateaux were promoted to a more prestigious class because of insider deals that altered the scoring system for the classification of wines into premier crus and grand crus. This system now takes into account the facilities of each chateau's tasting room, the size of its warehouse, and even the extent of its parking lot. The quality of the wine counts for just 30% of the total score for the wines of the top ranking, those deemed premier grand cru classe A. In Vino Business, Saporta shows how back-room deals with wine distributors, multinational investors like the luxury company LVMH, and even wine critics, have fundamentally changed this ancient business. Saporta also investigates issues of wine labelling and the use of pesticides, and draws comparisons to Champagne, Burgundy and the rest of the wine world. Based on two years of research and reporting, Vino Business draws back the curtain on the secret world of Bordeaux, a land ever more in thrall to the grapes of wealth." ...Show more

Uncommon Sense: The Popular Misconceptions of Business, Investing and Finance and How to Profit by Going Against the Tide by Mark Homer

$38.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

How would you like to succeed in business and master investment by profiting in untapped areas that the masses know nothing about? Uncommon Sense guides you to unique, little-known and commonly misunderstood strategies that generate lasting revenue and sustained results by going against the tide. In th is book you'll discover: - How to asses real value, understand the hidden motives of the media and see through hype. - Real business investing models such as hybriding and super-specialisation which will enable you to invest securely and profitably. - Understand the popular misonceptions, schemes, traps and truths which part you from your money - and learn how to defend yourself against them and secure lasting wealth. Essential reading for investors, innovators and entrepreneurs, Uncommon Sense provides a balanced, insightful and inspiring toolkit for making smart decisions in investing and business. ...Show more

Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant: Guide to Financial Freedom by Robert T. Kiyosaki

$19.00 NZD

Category: Business and Law

Cash Flow Lifestyle takes us back to Robert's early journey on the road to financial freedom and his mentoring by his rich dad. This book shares many of the secrets of the rich, secrets related to how to tell the difference between advisors and salespeople, how to separate fact from opinion, how to gain confidence related to decisions about money and investing, and how and why the rules of money have changed.   These secrets form the eight building blocks to wealth that Robert and his rich dad explore in Cash Flow Lifestyle, written in the classic Rich Dad Poor Dad style of stories and contrarian thought.   To explore and uncover these secrets even further, Shane Caniglia -- entrepreneur and president of The Rich Dad Company -- expounds on the building blocks by showing how they have actually been implemented to make Rich Dad a thriving, innovative business and a powerful international brand. ...Show more