This Day in Business History

By Raymond L. Francis and Francis L. Raymond

Filled with notable quotations for public speakers, journalists, authors, and broadcast professionals Includes business trivia, past and present, that's fun, fascinating, and informative Raymond... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071447776
• ISBN13: 9780071447775
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.4" x 1.3" x 5.7"

Customer Reviews

Where were you when I needed you?

I always found writing reports, in school, boring. I wish your book had of been in my library. I enjoyed the way you found humor in history. Not that you rewote history, you just made it fun to read about.

I am the author.

This book was a joy to write. When an editor first broached the idea of writing a day-by-day history of business to me, I was skeptical because I'd imagined the lives of business people to be as bland as the concrete of their offices, as bland as an economics textbook. But I was in for a wonderful surprise. Over the years of research that went into this book, I found the stories of notable executives and economists and companies to be jam-packed with courage, brilliance, humor, disaster, pathos, and triumph. For example, take the story of the great Southwest Airlines, which continues to this day to prosper through its humanistic and customer-oriented approach, while the flying dinosaurs of yesteryear continue to die off. Southwest is famous for being good to its customers and good to its workforce. The idea for a simple, inexpensive airlines was hatched one evening over drinks, and the original "magna carta" of the venture was sketched out literally on a cocktail napkin. The first five years of Southwest's existence, before any planes took to the air, was spent in expensive courtroom battles against the established airlines who tried to choke the infant enterprise. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost before a single ticket was purchased. The dinosaurs had cause to feel threatened. Herb Kelleher, the driving force behind Southwest, has called his light-hearted, people-oriented approach, "management by fooling around." This book describes events from Roman times (when modern dating began)right up to Martha Stewart and Enron. You will notice that for each day I tried to include at least one humorous or mind-catching quotation that originated on that day, at least one story of how a major company came into being (with special attention to its earliest stages and to key executive decisions), and at least one of the milestones that define the march of commercial history. I hope that you find this march as interesting and enjoyable to read about as I did to discover and write about.

Bravo

This book is amazing..some things and exerpts you never knew existed..Raymond Francis..you have done your research!!! Atta Boy!!!!!

"Well I'll Be Dang"

I was impressed with the book...Mr. Ray Francis is a very intelligent man with a sense of humor and wisdom.