When Bob Lutz got into the auto business in the early 1960s, CEOs knew that if you captured the public’s imagination with innovative car design and top quality craftsmanship, the money would follow. The “car guys” held sway, and GM dominated with bold, creative leadership and iconic brands like Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, GMC, and Chevrolet.                       But then GM’s leadership began to put their faith in numbers and spreadsheets. Determined to eliminate the “waste” and “personality worship” of the bygone creative leaders and maximize profitability, management got too smart for its own good. With the bean counters firmly in charge, carmakers, and much of American industry, lost their single-minded focus on product excellence and their competitive advantage. Decline soon followed.                                                                                                In 2001, General Motors hired Lutz out of retirement with a mandate to save the company by making great cars again. As Vice Chairman, he launched a war against the penny-pinching number-crunchers who ran the company by the bottom line, and reinstated a focus on creativity, design, and cars and trucks that would satisfy GM customers.                                        After emerging from bankruptcy in 2009, GM is finally back on track thanks in part to its embrace of Lutz’s philosophy with acclaimed new models like the Chevrolet Volt, Cadillac CTS, Chevrolet Equinox, and Buick LaCrosse.                               Lutz’s common-sense lessons, combined with a generous helping of fascinating anecdotes, will inspire readers in any industry. As he writes “It applies in any business. Shoemakers should be run by shoe guys, and software firms by software guys, and supermarkets by supermarket guys. With the advice and support of their bean counters, absolutely, but with the final word going to those who live and breathe the customer experience. Passion and drive for excellence will win over the computer-like, dispassionate, analysis-driven philosophy every time.”

Not For Turning is the first volume of Charles Moore's authorized biography of Margaret Thatcher, the longest serving Prime Minister of the twentieth century and one of the most influential political figures of the postwar era. Charles Moore's biography of Margaret Thatcher, published after her death on 8 April 2013, immediately supersedes all earlier books written about her. At the moment when she becomes a historical figure, this book also makes her into a three dimensional one for the first time. It gives unparalleled insight into her early life and formation, especially through her extensive correspondence with her sister, which Moore is the first author to draw on. It recreates brilliantly the atmosphere of British politics as she was making her way, and takes her up to what was arguably the zenith of her power, victory in the Falklands. (This volume ends with the Falklands Dinner in Downing Street in November 1982.) Moore is clearly an admirer of his subject, but he does not shy away from criticising her or identifying weaknesses and mistakes where he feels it is justified. Based on unrestricted access to all Lady Thatcher's papers, unpublished interviews with her and all her major colleagues, this is the indispensable, fully rounded portrait of a towering figure of our times.

Now, "Inside Apple," Lashinsky expands on the attributes that last year made Apple the world's most valuable company. It's an entertaining account that explains how other companies could emulate Apple's success - while also making clear how difficult that task would be. By now Apple's approach to product development and marketing is well known. Lashinsky's chapter titles boil them down into succinct commands: "Embrace Secrecy." "Focus Obsessively." "Overwhelm Friends/Dominate Foes." All of which is easier said than done. Lashinsky credits Apple's outsize success largely to co-founder Steve Jobs, a noted micromanager whom he likens to "a domineering orchestra conductor.

Over 600,000 American children are in the foster care system each year-and the number is growing. So is the number of good-hearted people willing to become foster parents. But what does it take to become a foster parent? How does one begin? What about your own family? What does it cost? Success as a Foster Parent has the answers to these basic questions and much more. Written by Rachel Greene Baldino, MSW, in association with the National Foster Parent Association, it is the first and only commercially available book to clearly explain the process of becoming a foster parent.

Offers all the know-how you need to create an ideal water feature in any garden. Examines a variety of ponds according to their size and type, from formal to wildlife, and considers their installation and equipment. Well illustrated in color.

Looking for help making smarter, more profitable high-end investment decisions? Why buy ten books that cover each of the major topics you need to understand, when "High-Powered Investing All-In-One For Dummies" gives you ten expert guide for the price of one? This hands-on resource arms you with an arsenal of advanced investing techniques for everything from stocks and futures to options and exchange-traded funds. You'll find out how to trade on the FOREX market, evaluate annuities, choose the right commodities, and buy into hedge funds. And, you'll get up to speed on using business fundamentals and technical analysis to help you make smarter decisions and maximize your returns. You'll also find ways to be as aggressive as your personality and bank account allow, without taking foolish or excessive risks. Discover how to: Conduct preliminary research Evaluate businesses Invest for growth and income Minimize your investing risk Read financial statements Understand your tax obligations Trade foreign currencies, futures, and options Get a feel for markets and react quickly to fluctuations Spot and forecast pricing trends Take advantage of online trading innovations The key to expanding your investment opportunities successfully is information. Whether you're just beginning to explore more advanced investing or have been dabbling in it for a while, "High-Powered Investing All-In-One For Dummies" gives you the information, strategies, and techniques you need to make your financial dreams come true.

It’s astonishing to sit and watch tape of Kobe Bryant side by side with those of Michael Jordan. The footwork is the same. The post moves are the same. The spots on the floor the players choose are the same. The confidence is the same. The clutch gene is the same. The titles and game winning shots are celebrated the same. And even the badgering and belittling of their teammates is the same (it’s no secret that Michael Jordan was one of the harshest leaders to grace the hardwood). It’s eerily ironic how many similarities both players really share. They were both even coached by the same guy: Phil Jackson. It’s almost as if the basketball gods wanted to play a sick joke on the fans and send us a replica version of Michael Jordan.

For an accident-prone "normal girl from Norfolk" who didn't run a serious race until she was 25, Chrissie Wellington has done pretty well for herself. A multiple world champion and record-holder, she remained unbeaten in 13 straight races at her chosen event, the Ironman triathlon, before her retirement in December. And what a fiendish event it is – a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride, topped off with a marathon. Wellington's account of how she graduated from entering her first marathon on a whim in 2002 to the Ironman – surely Ironwoman would be more apt – title five years later is inspirational in the truest sense, because she feels strongly that sport can make ordinary people do extraordinary things. She was helped/bullied on her way by a tyrannical coach with a chequered past but was obviously deeply competitive by nature, and her accounts of the more brutal aspects of Ironman are not for the squeamish; if a competitor was illegally slipstreaming her in the cycling phase, for instance, she would let fly an airborne stream of pee to make them back off.

Mr. Obama’s new book, “The Audacity of Hope” — the phrase comes from his 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address, which made him the party’s rising young hope — is much more of a political document. Portions of the volume read like outtakes from a stump speech, and the bulk of it is devoted to laying out Mr. Obama’s policy positions on a host of issues, from education to health care to the war in Iraq. But while Mr. Obama occasionally slips into the flabby platitudes favored by politicians, enough of the narrative voice in this volume is recognizably similar to the one in “Dreams From My Father,” an elastic, personable voice that is capable of accommodating everything from dense discussions of foreign policy to streetwise reminiscences, incisive comments on constitutional law to New-Agey personal asides. The reader comes away with a feeling that Mr. Obama has not reinvented himself as he has moved from job to job (community organizer in Chicago, editor of The Harvard Law Review, professor of constitutional law, civil rights lawyer, state senator) but has instead internalized all those roles, embracing rather than shrugging off whatever contradictions they might have produced.

While Americans easily welcome advice from wealthy men, could anything be more obnoxious than a rich guy telling the aspiring masses, as Simmons does, that "there's no difference between being broke and being a millionaire"? But Simmons knows this and spends the first passages of "Super Rich" front-loading his explanation: There's nothing shameful in enjoying the worldly fruits of your labor, he argues. But it's the labor, and not its fruits, that brings happiness. This isn't some spiritual sleight-of-hand or mystical mumbo jumbo. Simmons may be a multimillionaire, but his real love has never been the dough; it has always been his work, which in his life has always seemed more like the yogic concept of "leela," or divine play. In "Super Rich," the philosophy is sound - articulated in simple prose with assistance from journalist Chris Morrow, but filled with anecdotes, humor and raw language that are unmistakably Simmons's.

Professors in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, Thomas N. Bradbury and Benjamin R. Karney are among the world’s leading scholars of social relationships, interpersonal communication, marriage, and well-being. Through in-depth interviews and detailed observations of thousands of couples, Drs. Bradbury and Karney have discovered the surprising ways in which personal histories, current life circumstances, and specific forms of interpersonal communication all combine to determine the quality and course of couples’ intimate lives. Their findings have been reported in more than 250 scientific articles and book chapters, and their 1995 review article is now the most widely-cited theoretical analysis of marriage published in the past century. On two separate occasions, the National Council on Family Relations has recognized Bradbury and Karney with the Reuben Hill Research and Theory Award for Outstanding Contributions to Family Science, and their co-authored text and accompanying video series, Intimate Relationships, has been used by thousands of undergraduates across the US and Canada. Translating and communicating research findings is central to their mission as scholars, and toward this end they founded and co-direct the Relationship Institute at UCLA, a center dedicated to engaging the general public with lectures, seminars, and workshops on new discoveries in the field of relationship science.

It’s Your Move: How to Play the Game and Win the Man You Want by Nick Savoy that features highlights of the new book plus never-before-revealed details about how Nick Savoy and Erika Awakening met, and how this top-notch dating coach inspired her to begin a whole new career.