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THE POWER LAW

VENTURE CAPITAL AND THE MAKING OF THE NEW FUTURE

Though it plods in spots, as forays into economics will, financial wonks will find it indispensable.

British financial journalist Mallaby delivers a circumstantial portrait of the venture capital revolution, with all its ups and downs.

How does one go about getting a hand into the pot of gold that is the venture capital market? By convincing investors that the power law is in play—i.e., that a specific idea will scale up “at an accelerating, exponential rate,” yielding riches for a relatively modest stake. For the maker of that idea, one has to hit on something that the world doesn’t know it needs until it does. In this highly detailed and sometimes wearisome account, the author opens with one such idea: An inventor conceives an all-plant hamburger that smells and tastes like meat, approaches a venture capitalist with the promise “to make you even more insanely rich than you already are,” and voilà: Impossible Foods was born. Mallaby, a former contributing editor at the Financial Times, locates the first venture capital funds in Silicon Valley but from a renegade source: In 1957, a group of scientists walked away from a lab and founded a group that was first known by the longer name “adventure capital.” The author traces the evolution of venture capital into the 1970s post-hippie culture of the Bay Area, where former communards were now content with the thought of becoming insanely rich, their tinkerings soon to explode in the digital revolution. By anticipating the wave, funders grew rich indeed, “making Silicon Valley the most durably productive crucible of applied science anywhere, ever.” Tracing the tumultuous rise of PayPal, Facebook, and other venture-funded projects, Mallaby reveals some of the inner tensions inherent in the game: Founders can be free spirits, but funders demand that they be controlled by outer boards and CEOs. The author closes with a projection into the future, with funders scattered well beyond Silicon Valley while fighting a long and perhaps losing war with an aggressive Chinese fund culture.

Though it plods in spots, as forays into economics will, financial wonks will find it indispensable.

Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-525-55999-3

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Penguin Press

Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

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THE CULTURE MAP

BREAKING THROUGH THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.

“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

Pub Date: May 27, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014

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