News & Opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Who wants to run a lemonade stand with me?
By Porchlight
Tis the time for lemonade stands -- a business venture I remember all too well. Dixie cups. Kid-sized plastic table.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
links for 2007-07-19
By Porchlight
The Elephant and the Dragon>>The Wall Street Journal | The Boom Beyond Our Borders In "The Elephant and the Dragon," Robyn Meredith, a Hong Kong-based correspondent for Forbes magazine, neatly navigates between the boom and the gloom.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
What is it about fables?
By Porchlight
The New York Times interviewed John Kotter yesterday and reported on his business fable Our Iceberg Is Melting. These numbers set the stage: Since its release last September, "Iceberg" has sold some 224,000 copies in hardcover (Leading Change [his prior book] has sold more than a million copies in 10 years), and been translated into 10 languages, with 10 more foreign editions in the works. When I reported on the Publisher Weekly best-seller numbers, Our Iceberg Is Melting was the surprise on the list.
Categories: news-opinion, publishing-industry
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Blog / News & Opinion
From Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines
By Porchlight
I have seen brilliant entrepreneurial strategies falter as an organization grows and matures. Obviously, you manage a $25 billion company differently than you do a $25 million company. But you change your practices, not your principles.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
The business of the book business
By Porchlight
Random House (a piece of that German giant Bertelsmann) recently crunched their publishing numbers with New York magazine. The numbers: There are 1,500 Random House employees in New York. Every week they unveil 67 new books (around 3500 books/year).
Categories: news-opinion, publishing-industry
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Blog / News & Opinion
Bet On Longer Attentions Spans
By Porchlight
Monocle, a very cool and hip European magazine, has an video interview with Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, the CEO of Lego. When asked how his company would deal with children's lack of time to play with their product, this was his response: Playing with Lego is like reading a book,. Books, people have said books would die.
Categories: news-opinion, publishing-industry
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Blog / News & Opinion
links for 2007-07-17
By Porchlight
High Cotton >> BusinessWeek | "Gambling On King Cotton" "Killebrew's experience during the tumultuous year of 2005 is the subject of High Cotton: Four Seasons in the Mississippi Delta by Gerard Helferich.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Could Carnegie do it today?
By Porchlight
Back around the early 1900s, Andrew Carnegie set out to build libraries -- 2509 libraries, in fact. 1689 of which were built in the United States. The folks over at Freakonomics point out that publishing was a completely different animal then than it is now.
Categories: news-opinion, publishing-industry
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Blog / News & Opinion
links for 2007-07-12
By Porchlight
The New Influencers>>The Wall Street Journal | Caught in a Web of Comment How, then, should companies deal with the world of blogs, as well as podcasts, social-network sites such as Facebook and other "social media"? That question is at the center of "The New Influencers," written by former Computerworld editor Paul Gillin.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
The Internal Attack of the Ego
By Porchlight
Yes, fighting can be a great creative tool when ego doesn't get in the way. On that note, Josh explains that ego often gets in the way of collaboration. To this, Audrey responds that for any successful collaboration, we must let go of our false sense of control.
Categories: news-opinion
Keep up with the latest industry news and trends, our annual business book awards, and other pieces of news and opinion floating around the offices and minds of Porchlight Book Company.