Greed is a good read

November 12, 2010 11:49 AM

Best corporate biographies?

I quite enjoyed books like The Greatest Trade Ever, Dethroning the King (about the Inbev/AnheuserBusch merger), The New New Thing (all of Michael Lewis' books, basically), Barbarians at the Gate, Predator's Ball,...

What other well written, well researched corporate nonfiction would you suggest?

posted by OctopusRex to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

I don't have time to find the name of it right now, but there is a book on Southwest Airlines written in the 90's that fits the bill. It has a lot of pages dedicated to management philosophy, but it's mostly about the birth and emergence of the company.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 12:58 PM on November 12, 2010

Nuts!

On second thought, it's more management and less biography.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 1:01 PM on November 12, 2010

Body and Soul, and Business as Usual; both by the late Anita Roddick.
posted by BostonTerrier at 1:13 PM on November 12, 2010

House of Morgan
posted by turbodog at 1:36 PM on November 12, 2010

All Corvettes Are Red.
posted by mogget at 3:31 PM on November 12, 2010

Sweet and Low, by a son of the disinherited branch of the family.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:40 PM on November 12, 2010

House of Gucci by Sara Gay Forden was interesting to me because Gucci started out as a tiny, family run compay and eventually became an enormous globe spanning corporation/brand. The book follows that whole process, and the company changing ownership as well. It's a little more gossipy of a book than something like "Barbarians at the Gate", but well worth the read for the insights into how the luxury goods market works. There is even some lurid fashionista backstabbing, and a murder to keep things exciting.
posted by EvilPRGuy at 7:56 PM on November 12, 2010

Not sure if it quite fits what you're looking for, but Panasonic: The Largest Corporate Restructuring in History is a very interesting read.
posted by xedrik at 8:11 PM on November 12, 2010

I don't know if this is the sort of thing you're looking for, but I liked Conspiracy of Fools, about the collapse of Enron.
posted by Shesthefastest at 8:29 PM on November 12, 2010